Soundless Melody
by Kore wa watashi
Summary: Samuel 'King' Valentines. He used to be an arms dealer, providing for the needy. But now, he's the motherfucking CEO and PIC of his own private militia called Red Arrow. These Abyss freaks may be scary and freaky, and the Japs may have these Kawaii as fuck Ship Girls. But Red Arrow's the key for victory in this one.
1. Who Dares Wins

**As my interest in Touhou Project grew, I found out of another fanbase called Kantai Collection. At that point, I became how I was the first time I heard of Touhou Project. I listened around, ask around and watch videos on youtube about this new fad. Apparently, Kantai Collection, is the new Touhou.**

 **I call bullshit.**

 **Those two fanbase are different in their own respective way. Sure, Kantai Collection may have the same hype as Touhou did during its prime, but both fanbase are nothing alike. One's about a group of trigger happy girls who could shoot a colorful array of bullets, yokai myth and those kinds of stuffs; while the other one's about the personification of warships. See? There's no way that these two fanbase are similar. There may be 'competition' going on within the fans, but as far as I've seen it, it's fortunately not enough to start a fan war. And that is good.**

 **Figuring out that the community is as big as that of Touhou's, I got interest in it and decided to check out FF. And I was not surprised when I saw an archive for Kancolle. At that time, I've been reading some of the works posted and I'll admit that I'll have to get used to the way most of the stories here are written. There's an interesting fic called Terror in Corruption, but too bad that it hasn't been updated from what it looks like. I'm personally inspired by that particular fic, I like the idea and am trying to recreate my own version of the setting given in that story.**

 **Okay, I've wasted a hundred plus word writing this so I think that it's time to get to the story.**

 **Here, enjoy.**

* * *

 _Fly me to the moon~ and let me play among the stars~_

 _Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars~_

He didn't care what people say about his taste in old music, no words in the world could even come close of summarizing how he could care less of what people say about his taste in music. However, he's not going to shut away people's opinion of him; because he knew that sometimes, people's opinion did matter. Just not all of the time. The title of the song was 'Fly me to the moon', originally titled 'In other words', written by Bart Howard and first performed by Kaye Ballard. But the version he was currently listening belonged to Frank Sinatra, another famous jazz slash swing singer back in fifties. For him personally, the song was sung from the mind of a man who's got a sense of longing. A sense of longing which also served as an expression of love to his lover.

But even he knew that love, longing and dedication meant nothing these days. Not in this apocalyptic wasteland of a world people lived in today.

 _In other words, hold me~_

 _In other words, baby kiss me~_

He hummed along to the song, not even bothered by the bumps and shaking of the car he's in. He had been driving for three hours straight and was nearing his objective, Osaka. Osaka, like many parts of Japan, are one of the places that got completely abandoned. During the war, more like ever since war broke out, the Japanese government made the people in Osaka evacuate, that included neighboring prefectures like Kyoto, Nara and Wakayama. The reason was not due to bombings or anything like that, no. It's something worse than that. World War Three was not a war that involved people killing people, no countries were hostile against each other. Meaning that no nukes or any biological chemical weapons were dropped all the way from orbit killing thousands of people.

What made WW3 worse was the fact that aliens waged war, not men. Yup, you heard that right, motherfucking aliens. He'd seen the chaos first hand, but not as a soldier. He'll get to that later. Anyway, people used the term aliens because they have no way of identifying them other than beings that were capable of sinking war vessels, conquering oil platforms and overall causing mayhem and terror at sea. Then, they were dubbed as something called the Abyss. Why the Abyss, if he had to take a wild guess it's probably because that term's easier to pronounce than Xenomorphs.

About the Abyss themselves, not much was known about them aside from their objective of conquering earth's sea. Hell no one even knew where they came from, thus further supporting the theory of them being extraterrestrial beings from space. But isn't it weird, aliens from space planning to conquer the earth's sea—on second thought, maybe it isn't. He got the pre-war movie Battleships to thank for that. Damn movie wasn't even that good in the first place. Getting sidetracked here; the Abyss had no other objective than conquering the sea. This could be proven by the fact that they had not attacked any country who were lacking in the naval department. But they attacked Japan, which is why Osaka and some of the prefectures nearby were abandoned. The Japanese government was planning to restore the condition of their wounded nation, but they just can't do that alone. They asked help from their allied countries, but repairs and restoration costs were just too damn expensive.

So, they turned to him. Him and his boys.

Not all war's a bad news. For people who are desperate at finding opportunities like him, war's like tank full of fish. So many opportunities.

Samuel Valentine. He's the chairman, CEO, PIC, and any words synonymous to those, of his own private militia called Red Arrow. He's currently in Japan doing a job for the Japanese government, simple mercenary jobs such as providing muscles, guns, technology and things like that. The Japanese were a good client; the price they offered were not the highest but acceptable. Besides, it's better to find chances here than in big and powerful countries like the US. Almost no opportunities there since the government there weren't that forward on asking the help of private militias. Red Arrow had been supplying the Japs with their men, weapons and even technology. Mostly on manpower because most of the Japanese had to send their men on sorties, missions that required them to leave their homeland.

So in short, they're here as hired guns protecting Japan from outside threats… that includes both human and alien threats, or Abyss or whatever. Honestly speaking, he could care less what attacked the world five years ago. Five years ago, he was just a guy selling weapons to people who needed them. Mafias, govs, the cartels, the Yakuza… you name it. He didn't discriminate. Making as much as thousands of dollars for several shipments, not so good; especially with the way economy was in the late two thousands. The war happened on 2012, freaking Mayans ware right about the doomsday, and it ended in 2017, which was four years ago. In who's favor? Definitely the Abyss. Right now, ocean trade routes are being dominated by the presence of Abyss-al beings; they'll shoot down any ship which weren't theirs, uncaring whether they're transport or even civilian vessels.

It was then when people labeled them as monsters. Their very existence was despised, some countries even made the topic of them something as far as taboo and that they'll arrest those who'll speak about them. Now that's funny too, considering how people fear them and hate at the same time. But he can't blame people, man, humans like him; they tend to hate what they fear or couldn't understand. Talking about people made him wonder how the Japs will reinstall or reform their government. Speaking bluntly, right now, Japan was one of the few selective nations out there whose economy, government was in need of major fixing. Though people had yet to be killed by those Abyss freaks, they were merely threatened; the people believed that their government's a pussy for hiring a private militia to protect their own country. That may be pathetic but he could see reasons, but it looked like the people couldn't.

Protests for re-election of the current Prime Minister were done, demanding for a more competent and brave leader to take charge and lead their country to safety. Some were even ready to be prime ministers themselves. The thought made him snort in the middle of driving. He's breaking the speed limit here, but it's not like police are going to arrest him. With Osaka and the nearby prefectures abandoned or 'evacuated', the Japanese government gave Red Arrow permission of setting up base. A huge one. He dare say that it's even bigger than the entire JSDF base combined; oh who's he kidding with, of course it is! Like any other independent business men out there, he grabbed opportunities when it flew right in front of him.

So back in 2012, when everyone's still unsure on whether to arm their men to war against those monsters, he was already three steps ahead of them. He recruited other smaller militias under his command, forming them under one banner—which was Red Arrow of course—and when they were big enough to be considered as an army, he took another step forward and built a base in the middle of the Pacific. Yup. The main base of operations, not the smaller forwarding bases that they got on what's left of the neutral sea that the world had to offer, was still functioning… until two years ago.

He turned the steering wheel in a fit of irritation. Remembering an unwanted memory always had this kind of effect on him.

Two years ago, Red Arrow's main base, or the Pacific Base as what they'd call it, was attacked by those Abyss freaks. Red Arrow did everything it could to survive the onslaught, but them Abyss fucks were too much. Their techs, their strategies… they're not human and that was what pissed him off. How can they fight something which was not even human in the first place? They're not fighting ghosts here, sure, that'll be scary as fuck, but aliens? What is this, District Nine? If he had to say one thing about those Abyss-al freaks, is that fuck'em to where even God himself won't bother looking. Starting that point, he began to care about this Abyss, these motherfuckers… the disappointing part was it took him his dreams, his life to realize just how dangerous these guys were.

Ever since the Pacific Base was destroyed, he and the rest of the surviving members of Red Arrow, relocated to their second HQ which was in Afghan. The good news was, business was still good despite the rough awakening he'd to go through. The Arabs need guns just as much as an American needs bullets. Red Arrow was a neutral faction; it's willing to accept requests from any countries provided if they had the funds for it. The Brits, 'Mericans and Chinese were also some of their top clients… now, they're focusing solely on Japan, seeing that accepting more major contracts like the ones they currently had with the Japs will not only be viewed as treason or a violation, but also a sign of distrust from Japan itself.

He picked up a small walkie-talkie from the dashboard of the car, he brought it to his mouth to speak. "Tae, I'm almost at home, tell the boys to let me in."

" _Will do, King."_ A static voice replied calmly.

Osaka, the entirety of Osaka, had been surrendered down to him by the Japanese government to be used as Red Arrow's base in Japan. The military couldn't provide them with ready built accommodation, meaning that they don't want any stinkin' private army sharing a room with them in one of their bases, so they just gave them a land to build their base on. But the good thing was, no one complained. The entirety of the Osaka prefecture, not just the capital, was surrendered to Red Arrow entirely. That's not appealing, it's called being desperate. He's currently driving through the main toll that will take him straight to Osaka. Red Arrow private militia had closed down the toll, setting up roadblocks and checkpoints portals that restrict anyone from entering. Except for him of course, unless they want to get their asses fired.

He could see the large portal like gate thing now, if Tae's doing his job properly then the boys stationed there should be able to see him coming riiiight now.

" **King's back home! Open the gates!"** a loud megaphone like command boomed. It was so loud that even he could hear it from inside the car.

The gates of the portal opened upwards, allowing for him to drive through it. The car he's using belonged to Red Arrow, one of the valuable assets and many vehicles that the militia had. He set the driving speed to a slower place, looking around, men in uniforms were saluting him as he was driving. He paid them minimal attention, seeing as how he's used to this kind of attention and respect. He parked the car on a place where it won't disturb the working men and since this was still the toll, the city of Osaka was still up ahead. But Tae wanted to meet him here. He raised the hand brake, and was about to power the vehicle off until one of his men approached him by the window.

"King!" the man, dressed in a heavy duty uniform, or Red Arrow's standard issue service attire—called the ARU-1—stood attention with his legs stuck next to each other while giving him a salute. The upper attire of the soldier consisted of a black military-esque shirt, with the Red Arrow logo which was a falcon carrying an arrow in its talon. The uniform was meant to provide maximum comfort and protection at the same time. The paddings were mostly located at the shoulders, elbows and collar area of the clothing. There are also pockets available for the sake of convenience. He donned a tactical load bearing vest which was obviously used for him to store magazines for his guns, all of the available pockets or space were filled with ammunitions for the AK he had. Looking closely, one could spot several fragmentation grenades and smoke grenades kept in place securely in one of the many spaces available. The straps and suspenders were designed to have the same color as the clothing, and since this wasn't meant to be the combat uniform, he's not wearing any armor underneath. Covering his face was a black balaclava with two holes to allow for vision.

"What do you have for me?"

"Leader Tae's waiting for you at the tent."

"Alright, show me the way."

He exited the car, letting himself to stretch his aching legs. Driving for long hours will do that to anyone. He stood as tall as the soldier beside him, about six foot eight, but only less dressed. He sported the same attire as the soldier, along with the tactical load bearing equipment, all that's missing was the mask, showing his face for the world to see. His face was angular, not the type of face that one usually see in Asia. His cheekbones were well defined, showing that he's not the type of person that people should mess with. His overall built was lithe and balanced, not too muscled up like body builders juiced with steroids but not too thin like your typical and average fuckboy. His hair was originally long and untamable, until Tae told him to go and cut it shorter. He did and he liked it. It's now tied only in a short ponytail, with several strands of his bangs covering his forehead. He's young, only twenty five, but a single look into his coal dark eye could send you back on a trip to the past. He had a large scar that cost him one of his eyes, which was why a leather eye patch was used to cover his left eye. He's not the type to shave, so people will just have to deal with his 5 o'clock shadow.

The soldier took him to the tent where Tae was in and along the way, nearby soldiers stopped whatever it was they're doing to salute him. King's a well-respected man by his people, and some men might even consider getting punched by him as a good luck charm, which was why most of them were so happy for combat training. Never mind that, the thing is, King's highly respected and was considered as a hero by his men… much to his ignorance. If they want to look at him as a hero, so be it. If they hate him, so be it; he'll just make sure that they're capable of doing their jobs and continue to make Red Arrow flourish as the world's number one private military organization.

They entered the tent, with the soldier standing near the entrance. There were four other soldiers inside the tent, definitely posted there as guards for Tae and the man who was currently busy going over plans and assignments was his second in command, assistant and best friend; James Tae Oliver. He's half Korean half British. He used to be a member of the Special Air Service but was diagnosed with partial blindness that rendered him useless with in the field. That's a cold topic to touch; even King himself won't dare touch it unless he had to. As a non-combatant leader, he's dressed in more formal clothing. A grey and black uniform with a white long coat that covers his legs when seen from the back; he donned a grey fedora, giving him the nickname Grey Wizard amongst the men. He stood a few inches taller than King, with the only thing iconic about him was the overall dress style. He took off his hat when he sensed King's presence inside the room, showing his hardened yet smooth looking face.

"About time you arrived." Tae said in an all knowing manner. "What took you so long? Don't tell me traffic did?"

King raised both hands in defense, but also in a sarcastic manner. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you cared." He dropped the expression as quickly as he brought it up. "Just cut to the chase Tae, what're we having problems with now?"

Tae sighed. "There's a good news and bad news."

"Bad news." King said, not letting Tae finish.

"…The bad news is, the military requested some of our men to come with them in one of their operations. The other bad news is that the General of the Eastern Army himself requested this." Tae said with a breathy tone.

"Then what's the good news?"

"Good news is, our shipment of gear and equipment arrived while you were out taking your joy ride all the way to Tokyo and back. Hope it was a good a trip King, because we all know it isn't." Tae griped bitterly.

"Psh, ain't like that matter… besides, I was bored, what do you think I should've done to alleviate myself off from my previous mood? Hit a couple of guys from the R'n'D division?"

Tae's accusing glare was clear enough.

"Okay, so I would totally do that, but that doesn't mean that I'll do it." King crossed his arms whilst shaking his head. "I'm disappointed Tae, to think that you have such a low opinion of me." he looked at one of the guards stationed inside the tent. "Isn't that right, Marty?"

"Uh… yes King!"

King nodded snobbishly.

Tae mentally slapped himself with an invisible palm. "Why did I agree on building a private militia with you in the first place…?" that's a question he'd asked himself many times before.

"That's cuz you don't have anything better to do. I remember you still stuck on your desk job back in the day, finding jobs for people instead of finding one for yourself." Retorted the eye patch wearing man. "And don't forget that you're also as interested as I was the first time we started."

Tae had to admit, he was right. When King barged into his safe house and said that he was going to build a private militia with a base somewhere in the middle of the pacific, Tae thought that the guy'd lost it. But things turned out to be good… until that attack on the main base delivered by those Abyss alien freaks.

"Alright, alright, we're getting side tracked here." Tae muttered seriously. "From what I could tell from the letter itself, it seemed that they—the military—was seriously requesting additional aid for manpower."

"Wha? They already have enough manpower over there, look!" King gestured with his arms wide open. "There're only half of us here and our contract stated that we're only going to be guardin' their country, not joining them on their fights."

Tae nodded sternly. "I know, King, which is why I'm leaving this decision to you. If you want to send some of our best men to aid the Japs in one of their skirmishes against those freaks at sea, then go ahead, make the call. But if you don't want to, I'm sure that the govs will understand."

King hummed loudly, making a thinking expression. "What would we gain from helping them in one of their soon to be run-ins with those freaks?"

"Financially? Not a damn thing. Our contract with the Japs is fixed, so we can't demand for more money from them. But theoretically, we could learn about those freaks and plan a first response action should we encounter them in the near future."

"Hmm… alright. We'll give them what they want." King stated as if his decision was final… which it was.

"Are you serious?"

"Yup. Besides, they didn't say how many men they're gonna request, riiight~?" his lips stretched to a sly grin.

* * *

"…You have got to be kidding me." a woman said in Japanese while face palming at the same time.

"I'm afraid not… Lieutenant Yoshikawa." King said in fluent Japanese. Hey, he's the leader of his own private militia so he had to at learn about the languages his clients were speaking. "You requested for extra men, so here you have them."

"Indeed we did… but when we said extra we were at least expecting a squad worth of you guys! Not just two men!" The lieutenant shouted in outrage, causing several of her subordinates to look at her. "Are you underestimating the seriousness of the situation, Mister Valentine!?" this time, she was shouting in English. "This is not a joke. So I expect that you do not laugh when things get worse than what it already is."

But he laughed anyway. "You think that shouting and acting all serious like that will make me send more men for you guys to waste! Isn't that cute~?" he leaned back laughing, holding his stomach. But he suddenly stopped, his laughing died down in disturbing manner. **"Listen here woman."**

Marty gulped.

" **If you think that that'll make me send more men to die for your country's sake, then think again. My—OUR contract here only requires us to stay and guard this place while you are out there doing your fights. The terms clearly stated that** _ **we**_ **,"** King taps his chest along with Marty's. **"** _ **stay**_ **here. While** _ **you**_ **,"** he gestured to the entirety of the military operatives present. **"** _ **go**_ **out there and fight. It's clear! Want me to point out where we wrote that, here let me show you."** He pulled out a folded sheet of paper from the pocket of his uniform. He unfolded said paper and shoved it right in front of the Lieutenant's face. **"HERE! IT'S FUCKING HERE!"** the Lieutenant nearly jumped from his shouting.

"So, you either do two of the following things. First, you pay us a little bit more than what you are paying from now on or second…" King crumpled the paper right in front of her face. **"YOU DEAL WITH WHATEVER SPARE FUCKS I GIVE TO YOU AND YOUR COUNTRY!"** He panted from the shouting, until he blinked and realized the action that he did. He recomposed himself, patting down the wild strand of hairs which had managed to sneak their way out due to the heated moment.

Marty… he'd been out cold for about three minutes now.

Shock. That's the only thing that one could see on Lieutenant Yoshikawa's face. The surrounding military operatives could not believe that one of their most hardassed military officers was chewed out just like that. Her face showed no other expression than shock, then it morphed into that of a stoic one. "Very well. We will consider. Please, I apologize for any misconceptions that I may have said."

"…Don't say it." King muttered.

"Please, wait a moment while I confirm things with the General and the Prime Minister." She bowed formally one last time before retreating in the company of two armed men.

King didn't even bother looking at her fleeing form. He instead kicked Marty out from his unconscious state. Once he'd come to, King grumbled. "Oi Marty, inform Tae about the situation."

"Y—Yes King!"

While Marty over there's making a call to Tae back at base, he took his sweet time observing the surroundings. They're currently at the JGSDF base in Nerima Tokyo. The place wasn't bustling with much people as it used to the first time Red Arrow entered Japan. But there were fully armed detachment and divisions, smaller squads and regular sentries posted as guards around the base. Nerima's one of the few places in the Kanto region which still had people living in it. Though the army was releasing men freely around the prefecture, it's still one of the most populated places in the Kanto region; and it's not like the people here were complaining anyway. They were more than happy to have men dressed in uniforms walk around town accompanied by armored vehicles. And despite being less experienced in actual combat, these JGSDF guys had some serious discipline. Here in Camp Nerima, the home to the Eastern Army's 1st Division, he could see drill sergeants drilling several men in uniforms, not all of them.

Allegedly, here in Camp Nerima, training drills like this was done in a more relaxed manner; but ever since World War Abyss, the Japs had been doing everything they could to make sure that their military was in top shape and in the most maximum performance. Especially when most of the people from the army were reinstalled into the Navy, since most of the fights were happening at sea. The Air Force were not lax, they're as hard working as the Navy. He hadn't seen the Navy in action, but he's willing to put a few pennies in their favor. Red Arrow had little to none naval assets that will guarantee victory even in a small skirmish with a small fleet, which explained their total loss two years ago. But he made it up in requiring his men to be knowledgeable in all kinds of fields. Some of the members of the R'n'D department back at base consisted of ex-generals who fought in civil wars from all over the world, while most of the Assault Team consisted of skilled ex-soldiers or even militia.

"King, Leader Tae is informed of the situation already." Reported Marty.

"Good, and what timing; here she is back."

The previous Lieutenant returned with her escort of soldiers. King couldn't hide his frown when he noticed just how armed these guys were. They're armed with weapons from Red Arrow, maintained by Red Arrow and bought by Red Arrow… forget that last part, the Japs bought the guns off from them. Weapon transactions were always painful for him…

"So, what is it?" King asked impatiently.

The Lieutenant made a displeasured expression; definitely her conversation with the General of the Eastern Army did not go smoothly. "We… are not obliged to spend any more of our funds, so we will settle with whatever option you provide us." Oh how he enjoyed the displeasure on her face when she said that.

"Now that ain't so hard was it?" he tapped a button on his collar, definitely an intercom for his radio. "Tae, our friends have agreed to condition B. Uh… you know the one that I wrote in the script that I just ripped? What, the script's back at base?! If that ain't the script, then what was it? Oh. Oh… then the one that I just ripped was really..." He looked at the two pieces of ripped paper which had just been blown by the wind.

.

.

.

"Well, uhm, shit."

* * *

"Okay so Tae, what's our mission here?"

After clearing things with the Japs back at Nerima, it had been decided that Red Arrow private militia forces are to act as reinforcement should it be needed. Still, King and Marty will have to fight alongside the Japs. Mission instructions had been relayed over to Tae from the Japanese military and he's about to hear from Tae.

" _You and Marty are to act as diversion while a group of JGSDF squads extract valuable research material from an Abyssal headquarters on the neighboring sea. Beware King, the way in will be a rough one since we are expecting them to greet us with the warmest welcome they could give."_

"Is that why we're going in with our own chopper?" he asked while tapping the ceiling of the helicopter's cabin.

" _Yes, and also I'm sure that they won't lend us any of theirs after that little thing you pulled back at Nerima. Anyway King, the JMSDF will also be joining us for this op; they're going to keep enemy armadas busy while you and Marty deal with threats on the base's platform. The navy had these special operatives called… Ship Girls."_

"Ship Girls?" King asked.

" _They're androids created by Japan. I wasn't given much intel about them, something that I can't blame the Japs for doing, but here's what you need to know: they're a version of today's smart android capable of fighting like actual warships. That's all."_

From the cabin of the helicopter, King whistled in amazement. Then, he realized something important. "Wait a minute, if the Japs had that kind of tech, why the hell did they even bother hiring us in the first place?!"

" _Uh… I don't know, maybe that's because they do not to waste resources for the expensive they're capable of pulling?"_ The sarcasm was strong on Tae's tone. _"Just do the damn mission King and oh, try not to get overboard with your ADAM alright? Tae, out."_

King turned around and approached the pilot who was busy driving avoiding missiles and whatever Anti-Air that the Abyss had to offer. "PILOT! Fly us over the damn platform and return to base ASAP! I do not want you or the bird to get shot down; Marty and I will rappel down from there and once we touched down, you head south!"

"Roger that King!"

The helicopter pilot's doing everything he could to make sure that they weren't hit by anything. The intensity's real. It's a good thing that the Abyss was targeting the Japs' planes and ships. Still, who would've thought that they're going to assault an Abyss headquarter? Looking at the objective from where they're at, the headquarters' about the size of a large oil platform with bridges connecting to multiple platforms, kind of like Red Arrow's old destroyed main base, except more eerie and disturbing looking. They nearly got hit by a SAM, causing the chopper to tilt drastically. King cursed as he returned back to his seat looking at Marty who's hanging on for his dear life.

"Marty! Ready your ADAMs and I'll ready mine, you're going to deal with the guys at the platforms while I'll deal with the flying ones!" he ordered the nervous man.

Marty opened his front pack to take out a tablet. The tablet's screen turned on, glowing a dim blue color. "Activating Armageddon Dermal Action Module!" the screen of the tablet read 'voice authentication verified' before shutting down completely. ADAM or Armageddon Dermal Action Module was a combat boosting implant created by Red Arrow private militia for their men. It activates by releasing a command to the human's central nervous system, hijacking it and allowing the implant to remove human limitation on the human body, allowing for the subject to perform superhuman feats such as running at a very incredible speed, withstand pain to a certain degree, heightened senses, faster reaction time and a clearer thinking. Marty's eyes which were visible through the holes of his balaclava changed into a deep red color. Gone was his nervous and restrained persona, replaced by a calm and more calculative one. However, using the ADAM for a prolonged period of time will have a negative effect to the subject's body. Subject would also be prone to suffer from mental attacks and psychological ones.

The thing about ADAM was that it affects those who had it differently. For Marty, since he's someone who gets nervous and groggy easily, activating ADAM will induce him into a calm and almost hypnotic state, allowing for clearer thinking. For King…

"Let's get **killing**."

Once the chopper reached where King had ordered it to, both men inside the cabin of the chopper rappelled down using the heavy duty ropes without any harness at all. At the state they're in right now, pain and fear was unknown; only calmness. They descended like eagles doing a dive bomb without any consideration of safety, their armed to the teeth state only made their falling form all the more intimidating. Instead of the normal ARU-1, both King and Marty were wearing ACU-6, which stands for Action Combat Uniform. Unlike its more reserved and non-combat ready brother; the ACU-6 was designed solely for the purpose to provide the wearer with maximum protection and defense against bullets, fragmentation threats and all sorts of physical harm that the wearer may be subjected to. It's more of a combat armor instead of a uniform really. A large ceramic plate was used as armor that goes underneath the Kevlar covered fabric of the cloth; arm guards, gloves, knee guards, shin guards are also ceramic plated. The Red Arrow insignia glowed like a red traffic light on the middle of the abdominal section of the front plate armor. Marty wore the ballistic helmet that goes along this combat designed uniform, covering his entire head with bulletproof shielding as well as providing him with a re-breather on the front. King ditched the helmet, finding them to be bulky for his taste. His dark coal hair could not keep still due to the rush of the fall.

When both men landed, hard one might add, on the platform, they readied their arsenal. Arsenal, not equipment. They're bringing themselves to the fight. King had two AA-12 automatic shotguns with a twenty drum mag slung over his shoulders. Additional ammunitions were strapped to his back, front and even sides to give him all the bullets he needed. There's no need for sidearms, bringing two guns was enough. But he did have a very, very good knife strapped somewhere on his person. Marty did not favor a short ranged weapon, instead he armed himself with a Milkor SuperSix MRGL. There were 40mm rounds strapped all over his body, from his chest to his arms and even pants. The grenade launcher in itself was intimidating enough, but Marty took it to another level by bringing along a light machine gun which was an M249. He had the machine gun on sling, ready to be used for later. The one who reacted first was King when he shot down a couple of Abyss-al drone like things. The entire Abyss unit present responded by dispatching several armed freaks to the platform. Why freaks, because King was sure that they aren't human.

"Marty! Proceed as planned and kill those reinforcements before they could do anything, I'll deal with the ones flying!" King shouted while going full auto with his shotguns. He shot down several more flying units, they all returned fire but his armor managed to withstand the impact of their guns. But even he knew that this armor won't be enough to stop the bigger guns. With his ADAM implant working, he could run fast without his armor hindering him. He could also hip-fire more accurately due to things going slower than what they really were for him. While King was doing this, Marty was dealing with the reinforcements that ware dispatched earlier. The muzzle of his grenade launcher let out smoke whenever it'd fire out devastating rounds; it send Abyss-al infantry trooper flying and scattered all over the place. Even in his semi-hypnotized state, he could not suppress the feeling of disgust noticing that these guys weren't event bleeding red, but black.

"Fucking freaks…" the man muttered before focusing fire on a second batch of reinforcements.

The battle was intense, as if the one happening in the background wasn't in the first place. Be reminded that there were only the both of them on the Abyss-al platform, fighting off whatever motherfuckers these guys were spewing out; it's essentially a suicide plan, but King wasn't planning on going out easily. The plan was to kill as many fuckers he could until the Japs could fly in their men and get whatever the fuck was it they needed from this God forsaken place. As if on cue, his intercom buzzed.

" _Mister Valentine! This is Shogun 1-1, we're the guys who're going to go into the base! How's the LZ?"_

"Fucking great!" King replied with a laugh. He shot down another flying anomaly before it could even fire missiles at him. "You and your men better get here quick! You don't have to worry about Anti-Air on the platform section of the base, I got my guy Marty cover that one for me!"

" _Understood Mister Valentine, we will enter the base as soon as we landed on LZ! While we're inside, two attack choppers will be on standby awaiting your orders! But please try not to get them destroyed."_ The squad leader from the intercom said.

"Just get your asses over here and let me worry about those Abyss!" as the fighting grew more intense, more and more Abyss units were abandoning their fights at sea to return and secure their base. This meant more trouble for him and Marty. "Marty, how are you doing with those SAM launchers?!"

"I got all of them King, but more air baddies are coming!"

"I know that!" King shouted. "Just worry about the fuckers coming out from the base! Seriously, these guys are like fucking cockroaches since they keep on comin' from every little cracks I see…" he took cover behind the wreck of a cargo container, an empty one, to reload both of his guns. "Tae, do you read me? I need a supply drop ASAP."

" _Negative King, we can't send any birds to fly into the hot zone."_

"Fuck… how about evac, you got that covered?"

" _The plan was for you to evac alongside the Japs once they're done with their business on that base. So you're not leaving anytime soon."_

"Shit…" King looked up ahead, wondering where the fuck the Japs were at. To his relief, two helicopters came flying towards his direction bearing the Japanese's navy insignia. "Thank God you're finally here!" he provided covering fire for the chopper so that the JSDF team could be deployed. The chopper dropped ropes for the team to rappel, and once all of them were accounted for, the choppers flew off immediately, rotating in for the order to attack. One of the men ran towards him, this is definitely the squad leader. "What took ya' so long!?"

"We had a run-in with several of those flying things on the way here!" the squad leader shouted over the sound of gunfire and shooting. "We'll take exactly ten minutes inside and then we'll be outside for evac! So make sure that none of those choppers are destroyed!"

Switching his shotgun with the other one, King did not look at the squad leader to reply. "Ten minutes?! Make that nine cuz' we're low on ammo here!"

"Just hold them off!"

"Alright fine!"

The squad leader returned to regroup with his squad, and they finally entered the rig. King was in a tight spot. Ammo was running low and more of the flying fuckers just kept on coming. At least dealing with the ones on the land was easier, but there seemed to be no end on these freaks. One of the ground Abyss unit, a humanoid being with no particular characteristic except for the weird looking gun it had with it, tried to make a grab on him. "Fucking… freaks!" King swung the shotgun on his right hand, hitting the thing on the 'head', before finishing it off with the one on his left. He shot a couple more down, and that was like ten of them. He pulled the trigger of his guns, but nothing came out. "Shit, looks like I'm fucking out." He dropped the guns to pick them up for later, he unsheathed the knife he brought along with him especially for this op. The knife's black metallic blade glinted underneath the scorching heat and ray of the sun; he decided to take off some parts of his armor since they would only slow him down.

"Come on… come at me you little fucks… like the Brits' said, who dares…" he dashed forward in incredible speed. **"WINS!"** the knife was stuck to the chest of one of the Abyss who was unfortunate enough to be King's target. Since it's practically CQC now, there's no need for restrain. Three fired their weird looking cannon like guns at him, but he predicted that. He hid behind the body of the thing he just shanked, using it as a meat shield in a way that he could. He had a frag grenade on him; he pulled the pin and stuck it inside the mouth of the ghoul like being before kicking it towards its friends. And boom, it exploded, taking along three of them with it. He kicked another one on the gut, causing it to hunch forward allowing for him to stick his knife into his nape area; two came rushing at him figuring that they might have more chances of getting at him in close quarters, but King's about to prove them wrong. The two came at him with a tackle in mind, but King punched one of them before it could even tackle him. King sunk his knife into the thing's skull before grabbing the other one by the collar and throwing it to the side in a perfectly executed judo throw. Just as it was about to plop down lifeless bleeding black blood due to the knife stuck to its cranium, King pulled it off from it without even looking. The aftermath resulted in the messy, brutal deaths of these poor Abyss life forms. King himself was messy; he's covered from head to toe in Abyss blood, drenching him black.

He moved to face the remaining set of Abyss who were waiting for their chance to attack him, but noticed how they react. He smiled. "Aw~ would you look at that? Yer' scared! Well ain't that cute~! You see, you don't have to be scared, you don't need to ask where your God is." He stood, bathed in the blood of his enemies, with a maniacal grin the only thing present on his face. "Cuz he's right fucking here! **And he ain't got mercy to spare.** "

And he marched with knife in hand, soaking the platform in black Abyss blood.

* * *

 _How lucky can one guy be?_

 _I kissed her and she kissed me_

 _Like the fella once said,_

 _Ain't that a kick in the head?_

When the team of JSDF operatives was finished with extracting the samples of Abyss matter, they returned topside for evac. When the squad leader of the team got a clear view of the platform, he could not keep his mouth from opening.

"I couldn't feel any better or I'd be sick~ Tell me quick, oh, ain't love a kick?~ Tell me quick, ain't love a kick in the head~! AW RRRRIGHT~!" King was dancing with the dead body of an Abyss anomaly which he'd killed. What made the scene even more disturbing was the fact that the body was missing a head, the hundreds of Abyss-al corpses around it, and the lack of enemy presence present. King was in the middle dancing until he took notice of the captain and his squad. "Oh, so you're finally done! Good." He threw the headless corpse away without any single care.

"C'mon, call for evac. I need to take a cold shower after this." He informed the squad leader. "MARTY! Get'cher ass over here and tell Tae-man that we're done here!"

"Y—Yes King!"

King laughed boisterously at his companion's spineless reply. He approached the captain, who took a step back noticing just how drenched he was in Abyss blood. "So… what do you say sergeant? Wanna' join us?" his expression dropped. "Not in the shower, I mean, join Red Arrow, yeah, that's what I meant." No reply from the shocked squad leader and his team. "Oh! Yeah, almost forgot. MARTY! Get over here and stop whatever the fuck you're doing!" the balaclava wearing man tottered over quickly. "We're waiting for our ride, right? But first, let me take a selfie~."

He pulled out a cellphone with a camera on it, smiled for the shot and snapped a picture of the entire people present with the background filled with corpses.

That day, after the debriefing, no one from the squad talked about it.

* * *

 **I'm so sorry that this had to happen. But man, I'm just a person who couldn't contain his interest and hype! I think that I did well with this chapter, if I must say so myself. I like the way I made my character, King, be. He's that semi-psychotic, douchebaggy and gives-no-fuck character that only few existed in today's fiction. But not all about him will be him being an ass towards Marty or everyone he'll meet.**

 **I just can't wait how I'll make him introduce himself to the girls.**

 **Anyway, keep your horses and props if you could get the reference on the chapter's title.**

 **This is me, signing out.**


	2. Playing snakes

"How long will it take us to renovate this part of town?" King asked Tae who was waiting for him on the helipad.

"With eighty percent of our men stuck on guard duty for the rest of the week, leaving us with twenty percent—and that includes the Assault Team—doing nothing but patrol on the entire Kansai regions, probably a month. Or two." Tae answered as soon as King hopped off from the JSDF chopper.

King turned around to give the pilot of the chopper an informal two fingered salute. "Thanks for the ride guys, hope we'll have the chance of _working_ with you again."

The helicopter flies off, leaving the territory which had been granted for Red Arrow private militia. King noticed the small number of men Tae had with him, something he's used to seeing whenever he'd return from a mission.

"Go hit the barracks at town Marty; you deserve a rest after today." King told the balaclava wearing man who was standing behind him this whole time without looking at him.

The man in subject straightened, stiff as rod and saluted his boss. He left once King had permitted him to do so, with Tae staring at him as he was leaving unknown to him. Tae looked at King, who was looking somewhere else into the distance. "I'm surprised that out of all of the guys you could've brought along you chose him to go with you."

King shrugged, even though he was not paying attention to Tae a little bit. "He looked like he got potential, so I just chose him on a whim. Give him a raise or something, but not too much, I don't want the guys at the Intel department bitching about it later." They're in a registered helipad somewhere in the capital, Osaka city. It was also the place where Red Arrow had declared their main base in Japan, with the rest of the Kansai region only housing one forwarding base each. Red Arrow had total control over all the twenty four wards, which meant that they could practically set up base anywhere they want as long as it's within Osaka city. However, for the sake of convenience and other reasons which involved strategic positioning, they have made the Osaka city hall their main base of operations. Of course, the Japs were pretty hesitant at first since it was really an important building, but they let go once Red Arrow managed to convince them that nothing will happen to their city hall.

Geez, why can't they have a base somewhere near the aquariums in Osaka bay?

"Can't say that they're happy dropping you off here." Tae muttered as he watched the disappearing form of the JSDF helicopter on the distance.

"No shit." King said. "I just showed their asses what a true soldier fights like. They're probably like _'aw man, I'm so jealous of that incredibly handsome guy back there. He could curbstomp those Abyss freaks unlike me, aw man!'_ like that."

Tae let out a laugh, shaking his head to the side. "Dammit King, if that's the case then I won't be surprised if they'd start filling in forms to join our color." The coat wearing man was approached by one of the militia escort that came with him. The soldier dressed in black, like his fellow soldiers, surrendered a brown paper to Tae who took it without saying anything. "By the way, here. Here's the picture I took of that Abyss headquarters before the Japs blow that place sky high. And if I'm right with why you asked me to take one for you, then I can tell you that our chance is zero."

King wasted no time in taking the brown paper. He requested Tae to take a satellite picture of the Abyss headquarter they just hit along with the Japanese. Since the Japs had no intention of letting the place stand after gathering some of the samples they required, he'd need at least visual evidence that these Abyss monsters could think as good as a human does. He had a theory. Maybe, what if maybe, these freaks were no aliens after all? What if they're… test subjects gone wrong, experimented somewhere on a top secret island that was so hidden that no one in the world, not even the smartest department of intelligence could know of?

"Hm… these Abyss are more orderly than what I thought." He pointed to a particular part of the picture, on the brig like headquarter to be more accurate. "Look here; while I was there with Marty, this was where they put all of those cargo containers. But here, here's them placed near the front of the base. This picture was taken before our attack there, right?" he looked at Tae for confirmation.

"That's true. I checked the recording on the satellite that was hovering around the sea area where the battle took place, and luckily, it managed to swing around by the base before the attack…" the man trailed out. "Still, what you're thinking is probably the second wackiest thing you ever come to conclusion… the first being the revival of the Spanish Inquisition."

"Hey fuck you. They're the Spanish Inquisition; no one could expect them from coming." King barked in an aggravated manner. "Back to point. What I'm trying to say is that probably, just a huge fat probably, these things weren't as… mindless as we thought they might be. Sure, maybe they're just robots programmed to think smartly, but… I don't know Tae." King sighed. "When I fought them, and I'm not trying to be some sort of dramatic and unrealistic as fuck guy here, I sensed that they're… afraid of me."

Tae's look was skeptical. Almost too doubting. "So you somehow could tell that those things were… afraid of you?" the coat wearing man said out slowly, trying to get his words clear.

"Yeah, that's what I meant. I mean, of course I could be wrong, but yeah… that's what I felt."

"…King, I could give you a three hundred paged essay stating that that is completely impossible. These things are fucking monsters and that's proven, two years ago King… five hundred and forty three men! **Five fucking hundred and forty fucking three!** In less than forty minutes!" Tae's partially grey eyes glared at his old friend. "No humans on earth, not even the most combat ready and experienced assault forces in the world, could cut down that much of our guys in such a short period of time! That's inhuman."

Tae heard no answer from King. The latter was standing with his eyes closed, breathing deep as if he's keeping something from going out. And that something was clearly his anger. The glare that was sent to King softened. Tae well knew that the topic of what happened to Red Arrow two years ago was not a topic that he or King liked to touch. King himself remembered what happened back then. If he could compare it with historical happenings, it was like the Anglo-Zanzibar War again, with Red Arrow being the Zanzibar Sultanate. The Abyss injured like five hundred of them, while they only managed to get a confirmed kill on one of their… whatever it was called.

"And you know what's worse?" the man with the seeing problems took an aggressive step forward, his right foot stomping the ground. "We barely fought back—no, we _didn't_ even fight back." He turned, facing his back towards King. An uncomfortable wind of silence swept through the area, no one spoke a thing.

After a prolonged minute later, Tae spoke again. "Regardless, if you want to send some of our men into this op of yours, I'm not against it. Just make sure that it won't be a waste of resources." Then, with the escort of the men with him, Tae left the field; leaving King alone to be standing underneath the night starless sky of Japan.

* * *

The next day, early in the morning at exactly five hundred hour, Red Arrow private militia assault team were preparing for their op. King assigned Bravo team and Charlie team to attend the briefing, Alpha team was also present, their role were about to be discussed. The battle that took place the other day took place south-west of Japan, on the Pacific Ocean and near the Hachijo sub-prefecture. Ever since the outbreak of WW3, the JMSDF naval base in Yokosuka had been on full operational. While the U.S naval base next to it was continually lending support with what's remained of the 7th fleet.

"Alright you people listen up. I could've given orders via computer but I'll need you to hear me loud and clear on this one." He spoke to the small microphone near his lips. "Our op will begin at exactly six hundred hours, so you better get ready before then. Alright, here's the git: Charlie team will approach wreckage of the base via speedboats. You will be equipped with diving gear since that's basically the whole point of this op. Anyway, once you've reached your checkpoints, you are to disembark from your boats and dive to the wreckage to find whatever samples that you could gather from the site. Meanwhile, Bravo and Alpha team will be nearby for back-up in case if anything goes wrong. Remember, we're doing this on our own; the Japs don't even know. Once Charlie team's done, Alpha team and Bravo will regroup with them and return back here. The way there and back home will be long, so a chopper will be up for support in case if things get ugly." He paused. "Any questions?"

None.

"Good, get ready boys."

They all saluted him before running off to do what was instructed them. King also needed to make preparations of himself, for what, for something that he had in his mind. He walked back into the building to get himself ready for the op which will began in just an hour. Tae was busy with doing the preparations for the transports and so to not make things look suspicious, he's sending more men to the Japs for them to use. Once he entered the building, he was greeted by several people present there.

The familiar buzzing on his earpiece went off, causing him to express his surprise visibly. "Hello? Who's this?"

" _Mister Valentine? This is the Commander of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force."_

That made King stopped in his walk. He paused, not replying immediately. His lone visible eye narrowed slowly. "And to what do I owe the honor of speaking to the commander of the JMSDF?" he replied in fluent Japanese.

" _Ah, you speak Japanese."_ The older voice from the earpiece said in perfect Japanese. _"I was worried that you weren't able to speak comfortably with us."_

"Oh no, I made sure that I am capable of providing the _best_ services to my clients." If that was not sarcastic, then it's really subtle. "But seriously speaking, to what do I owe the pleasure, commander?"

" _Straight to the point, you'll make a fine soldier in our ranks."_

"Soldier? Don't you mean sailor?"

" _And he's smart too."_ a laugh can be heard by King coming from the commander's line. _"But as you have said, let us talk seriously. I am sure that you are aware of our newest… piece of technology after the battle the other day?"_

King snorted. "Sorry, I was too busy making sure that your men could get out safely without a single scratch on their uniforms. Or was it the army's, hell if I know…"

" _Is that so… but in any case, I am referring to the newly deployed Kanmusu units that participated in the battle yesterday."_

That cleared things up for King in the head. "Ah, you mean the androids? Yes, my subordinate briefly mentioned them to me. Why, is there anything wrong?"

" _I am getting to that Mister Valentine. As I have discussed with my own subordinate, as well as Prime Minister Honda herself, we are to_ hold _a meeting between the military of Japan and Red Arrow private militia regarding the topic of the Kanmusu."_

King could not suppress the urge to wince, even if he's trying his best to make that fact known to the commander. "I see. If I may ask right now, what will be discussed in this meeting of ours?"

" _The merging of Red Arrow private militia with the JMSDF into one minor fleet that will be operated by both sides."_

"…What?" okay, now, he's surprised.

" _I cannot say any more than that, Mister Valentine. We will be waiting for you today, later at exactly eight o'clock at our headquarters in Yokosuka. You are free to bring with you several men and your second-in=command. This is Admiral Himejima Itou, over and out."_

When the communication line was finally cut, King did not waste a fraction of a second to contact Tae. "Tae, big news."

" _What is it? I'm busy getting the boats ready for our op here…"_

"Cancel the freaking op, we got an even more important thing to deal with." King, for once, was in his serious mode.

Tae who was listening in carefully to his friend's voice recognized the tone. This was one of those rare moments where King would not make witty comments about what's going to be discussed. _"Okay then, what is it King?"_

"The Admiral of the JMSDF himself just contacted me. I'm not going to ask how they were able to do that, but let me lay it out real quick; they want us to merge Red Arrow with the Japanese navy to create a small detachment or fleet or whatever."

" _They what?! That's crazy!"_

"Tell me something I don't know…" King sighed, he ran outside again back to the lot. "They're expecting us at their naval HQ in Yokosuka for a meeting regarding the topic. I want you and a few of our guys to come with me, ACU-1 for the boys and only pack light; we don't them getting the wrong idea here. We'll discuss about this on the way there, for now, just cancel the op and I'll tell you when I'm ready."

" _Got it King."_

King stared at the sky, staring deep into dawn. He'd heard his fair share of crazy news, but this one was just ridiculous. A nation's army and a private militia working together in business was common nowadays, especially in times like these, but merging of power? Hell that's new. The Japs must've been desperate over this whole Abyss aliens crisis, well couldn't say he didn't blame them considering how much of the ocean's area they have conquered in just years. Western powers were still having trouble maintaining their own countries, Japan was obviously desperate to turn in to a medium sized but well-armed private militia for help and now they want to merge? Fuck…

* * *

"Can't fucking believe I chose to do this…"

King's muttering was unfortunate, or fortunately, unheard by the people inside the transport helicopter. The VTOL transport aircraft landed safely on the helipad in the naval base of Yokosuka. The aircraft was based on the famous Osprey VTOLs, but only lighter and more combat suitable. Since Red Arrow's air assets were limited only to rotor based aircraft, this was the best ride that they could bring, and the most expensive one too. The landing ramp of the VTOL opened and the rotors steadily died down, indicating the turning off of engine. King was sitting on the cabin side of the aircraft accompanied by five other people, Tae and four of his men who he brought with him.

"Alright everyone out, we don't want to keep them waiting."

King got out first. He could smell the sea's salty stench in the air, something he was used to since he used to have a base somewhere in the middle of the ocean too. Only bigger and easier to operate. As the others got off from the VTOL, Tae with the help of the men with him, the Japanese sailors and people wearing uniforms approached him.

He recognized Commander Himejima, but not the person next to him. The guy's dressed like a sprinkled donut from the store down the street, decorated with medals and fancy candies. There were also a couple of armed men accompanying the two undeniably important officers.

"Mister Valentine." Commander Himejima started. "This is rear admiral Yoshikawa." The rear admiral gave King a formal yet relaxed salute, something that King won't even bother returning. "Let us go immediately, the Prime Minister is waiting."

"Good, let's get this over with." King said a little bit too stiffly.

"As you wish. Your men are free to attend, but they must remain on standby by the door. I hope that that won't be a problem for you?"

"Oh, not at all commander."

They began walking to the main building of the base, which was located somewhere in the middle of the base. King instructed his men to always keep their guards up regardless of the friendliness the aura was leaking off. Tae was quiet throughout the entire time, something that King could completely understand. Tae, he never spoke much when in the presence of others aside from him or the people from Red Arrow. He's probably thinking on ways how he could get all the budget that's required to rebuilt Red Arrow's base. Even if the old location was literally a wreck under the sea by now, there were still precious resources that they could get from the remnants.

Once they entered the base, King had no time to marvel his surroundings when they reached the elevators. Commander Himejima pressed the button to hail for a lift, and almost instantly, the door dings open. The elevator was big enough to fit all of them in and thankfully, King needn't to worry about standing awkwardly inside an elevator that's filled with grown men in uniform. As soon as the elevator opened, two men in uniforms greeted them, saluting the officers in front. The Red Arrow group exited the elevator the last, letting their maritime self defense buddies lead the way for them. The walked the hallway, leading to the end of it where a double wooden door stood attached to its frame. This reminded King the first time he met and talked with his first client, minus the whole shooting thing.

King expected the scene to just turn out like this. Normally, a meeting would be discussed in a conference room. But since this was a military base, they're doing it inside of one of the mission rooms. He's not sure why, but he didn't have the time to think about that now. All around him, there were men with either concealed weapons or stoic looking faces. They're sailors alright and the military escorts with him, they're from the army. But it's the makeshift square conference table that got him interested. Especially the woman sitting at the end of it. She's old, like, young-old. Probably in her early forties if not older. Dressed properly, fancily; stereotypically bathing her in the 'I'm the leader of my country' aura.

However, more than the old bitch, he noticed the unusually clothed group of girls standing on the back of the woman and their forced stoic composure.

"Mister Valentine, Prime Minister Honda Mizutani is ready to see you." Said commander Himejima in a dramatic manner.

King saw a chair in front of him, empty too. So, he took it as a sign that the Japs were letting him sit. So he did sit down, not minding the minor attention that he had drawn upon himself.

"Mister Samuel Valentine… or should I say, Mister King?" the soft spoken yet highly authoritative tone of the Prime Minister said in a questioning manner. "Which one would you prefer to be called with?"

"…I'm not going to bother asking why does this matter but, shoot, call me Sam." He flashed the Prime Minister a charming smirk.

The Prime Minister returned his smirk with a composed smile of her own. "I see, very well then. Mister Sam, I am sure that you are aware as to why you, the CEO and chairman of the private military corporation Red Arrow, are here accompanied by your men."

King hummed, obviously just playing it. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Why don't you let one of your men speak and refresh things for me?"

The clacking of sound could be heard coming from the Prime Minister's private bodyguards. They reached to react, they must have somehow thought that King was speaking impolitely to the PM. King's men by the door also reacted, but instead of guns, they were reaching for their knives. Something that did not go unnoticed by the people present. Seeing the reaction coming from the Red Arrow operators caused the sailors and soldiers present to ready their guns, causing the group of girls which were currently standing behind the PM to react accordingly.

"What?" King honestly blinked, his tone completely relaxed and wondering. "Can't I ask for a reminder here?" he looked around the room, staring into everyone's faces.

The Prime Minister sighed. "I was informed about your… _iconic_ attitude by your friend Mister Tae. And I must say, it was just like I expected it to be."

King sent Tae a disappointed look before coughing intentionally. "Alright, _thank you_ Tae… so, let's get real here, what am I here for?"

The Prime Minister straightened herself, readying for an explanation. "As you may have known, we plan on merging our navy with your group, forming one effective and a responsive task force that's capable of dealing with both land and sea operations. As you know, the situation of our military is critical, that's the reason why we hired Red Arrow in the first place to act as a replacement for the lack of manpower we are currently facing. We have lost most of our vessels to the Abyss in the earlier years, the only ones we have now are what's left of our entire fleet."

"I still fail to see my role in this whole ordeal…"

"In short, by introducing you the Kanmusu, I believe that we will be able to put an end to Abyss-al threats in the Japanese sea." Honda then stood from her chair, gesturing to the girls behind her. Now that King was seeing clearly, there were also kids amongst the group, dressed in motherfucking sailor uniforms. "These are them, they are our newest solution against the Abyss. They may look like normal human beings, but they are in fact not. They are constructed to act similarly like the warship vessels we all know, but I can assure you Mister Sam, they are still very much human." Her tone was a little flat on the end.

The Prime Minister laid a hand on one of the girls' shoulder, the one standing in the middle and most front to be precise. "She is Nagato. Nagato, introduce yourself."

Nagato. She's a black haired girl, tall and was dressed in what reminded King of those kinds of sportswear that women usually wear when jogging or working out at the gym. Speaking of gym, she definitely did some lifting and had been gaining all kinds of gain with the form she's showing. Her tall physique gave off an intimidating aura, yet her natural long black hair and feminine charming face made her look refined and composed. Her upper clothing consisted of the sports bra lookalike colored in black and white with orange linings, what's impressive was the huge abdominal armor that'd be too thick and heavy for a normal person to wear that covered her well defined abs. hear that, _abs_. Her skirt was done in a similar style as her upper attire, minus the orange, with a huge metallic belt like equipment which had a golden insignia on the middle. As for her legwear, she's donning strangely designed high heels that King had never seen a woman wear before and a pair of black and red stockings. She was also wearing a pair of long gloves like arm guards, mostly black with orange highlights. And also, the headband she had on her head was the first thing King noticed when his eyes landed on her for the first time.

Her stoic demeanor changed into that of a fierce one, one that showed her enthusiasm. "I am Battleship Nagato, pleased to meet you. I am the lead-flagship for all the Kanmusu division."

King was impressed, so similar to a human, in fact, he'd trouble considering her a robot. "Pleased to meet you too." he said curtly. "Say, I was too busy doing my own business during the battle the other day, so could you exactly tell me what these girls' capabilities are?"

"Imagine hand cannon wielding, plane launching and torpedo shooting girls capable of skating through the ocean efficiently with no trouble at all."

"…That's concise, I like it." King nodded. "But I don't understand. If you have that kind of technology that was able to produce these girls, why hire us in the first place?"

It took the prime minister approximately four seconds to reply to his answer. "The production of these girls were finished three years before we have heard of you and your private militia, which was also exactly three years ago before the formation of our contract. Back then, these girls were put to reserve, since we only had limited number of resources to activate them. In truth, the reason why we hire Red Arrow was so that we could get our hands on technology to further advance these girls' capabilities. Based on what the lead developer of the program said to me, the technologies you've lent us were used primarily to improve the girls' power saving capability, armament structure and providing them each with different personalities."

"Wait, wait, wait." King turned to Tae for an answer. "We had _that_ kind of technology?!"

"Based on the prime minister's words, I guess we do."

"Then why didn't you tell me?!"

"I said, 'I guess'."

While King slapped his face with the palm of his hands, Tae continued speaking. "I'll admit, it may be my fault for not telling you the exact details about what the Japanese military had borrowed from us." His glare to the prime minister was subtle. "But I was not informed that our techs will be used to further improve multiple units of androids, I'm sure that was no mistake on our part, isn't it, madam Prime Minister?"

Prime Minister Honda sighed. "Let us not go there. In the end, it was you who lent us your technology."

"But wait a minute." King said, getting some attention in the room. "Tae, if the tech we have could improve these girls, does that mean we've been lending them what we used to make ADAM implants all this time, correct me if I'm wrong but, the only technology closest to make an android, a fully functioning android, is only our ADAM implants, right?"

"That's exactly the gist of it, King." Tae nodded in confirmation. "Lending the Japanese military the tech we used to make ADAM implants is not dangerous in itself, because honestly speaking, I was expecting them to use it to help improve their military strength by implementing implants just like ours, but I just remembered that our client lacks implementation experience."

King straight out pointed an accusing finger at the Prime Minister. "You played us like damn fiddles!"

"No, Mister Sam, it was _you_ who _played_ yourself like damn fiddles."

Multiple people in the room got tense, everyone was readying themselves. The group from Red Arrow near the door was the one at risk, due to it being surrounded by armed Japanese soldiers.

"…In any case," Tae intervened before King could draw unnecessary heat on their backs. "What's done is done; it's a mistake on our part, and a form of deceit on your part."

The Prime Minister nodded. "Fair enough."

King sat back down slowly, crossing on of his arms while the other one massaged the growing headache that's coming out from his head. "Tae, what's your thought on this whole merging idea?" he asked softly so that only Tae could hear.

"To be honest, it's risky. But we'll be getting a lot of help building our empire to its previous height once again, providing if we could cooperate well with the Japs. After this whole Abyss thing and our contract with the Japs are over, that is." Tae said in the same low tone King used. "Either way, it's your call, King."

"Are you two boys done with your own private discussion?" The PM asked with a polite tone.

"Yeah, yeah, we're done granny." That made everyone, excluding Red Arrow faction, in the room react. "Fine. I will agree to your idea of merging. But on three conditions." The Prime Minister's silence was taken as a form of clearance for King to continue speaking. "First, you will have to send your own men to the fight. I had one of your officers telling me that your military required some of my precious men to fight alongside you, which eventually lead to me and Marty being present at the battle the other day. Second, you will only let a few of your selected officers to command these girls, because we all know that you'll have your men entering Red Arrow restricted area in the end. And lastly, you'll be charged half of what you're paying us for 'reassurance'. Third, these girls will also be included as Red Arrow private militia assets due to the fact that you are using Red Arrow's technology in making them."

"The first two conditions are acceptable, but we cannot surrender them to—"

"Hey, hey." King suddenly stood from his chair, his hands raised. "Let's just say that I, chairmen and chief executive officer of Red Arrow, have a nifty and handy little button that will be able to do bad things to every personnel who have ADAM implants implemented into them. Let's just say that that button has the ability to do bad things to those implants like, I don't and I'm definitely not hinting here, fry that implants into nothing but scrap electronics that might destroy the nervous system of every human personnel that it was implemented in. Now, imagine that happening to your girls back there." Some of the 'girls' flinched at seeing his gesture. "Now I don't know how androids are made specifically, but in general, they all have their main processor, which is the human equivalent to their brains, which undoubtedly the same place needed for you to be able to implement our ADAM implants into." He leaned on the table, his face turning into something that was definitely different from his earlier smiling and snarky attitude. "Now, Madam Prime Minister, imagine me, pushing that one little button… you can probably already guess what will happen to your girls and you cannot do anything to blame us, because technically, that technology you used belongs to us, me pushing that button could be seen as taking back what is rightfully ours. Do you understand, Madam Prime Minister?"

No one moved. No one reacted. And most of all, no one spoke. The atmosphere just got heavier by the minute silence passed by, and it affected the Japanese greatly. King subtly glanced to his left and right, making sure that no one was making a wild move. Even if the Japs were to make any, his boys would be able to disarm, literally, them in a minute flat and that was one minute ago.

He backed away from the table; his eyes fixed on the old woman who still managed to hold her still, composed and calm expression. But he knew, in the inside, she's panicking. "If you could not come to our terms, then I bid you adieu." He drew circular motion in the air with his pointer, signaling his boys to get ready. "Red Arrow, let's show ourselves out from this place." He turned to leave.

"Wait!" King stopped halfway from stepping his first step out from the room. Everyone waited with bated breath at what conclusion and decision that the Prime Minister will come to. "…Very well. I agree to the terms." The heavy look she had on her face was evident, and some of the officers present in the room were already bickering. But with a raised of her hand, everyone was silenced.

"Good." King returned to his seat. "Then I would like to request your permission on reconstructing the destroyed Abyssal base to be used as the main base of operations for this new cell."

"…I'm sorry?"

"King, you can't be serious, we don't need her permission to—!"

"Ssh!" He raised a hand, rudely cutting Tae off. "Last time I check, the ocean territory where yesterday's battle happened was a part of the Japanese sea, which is your territory." He was saying this to the PM. "We can't use the Osaka bay since there is no easy access to the sea or this base since that will build tension between the both of us, because let's face it; your men aren't comfortable bunking with mine and mine are sure as hell aren't comfortable bunking with yours. So, I'd like to request permission to build a base through reconstructing the destroyed Abyssal base over there and making it into a forwarding base for Red Arrow private militia and the Japanese navy." He raised his other hand, making him look silly. "Don't worry. The money that you will give us will be used for funding the construction, and Red Arrow will be the one doing the whole reconstruction since we're familiar with how bases like that works. And also, since you are the one who's suggesting the idea of merging, then as our partnership goes, I will eventually have direct command to those girls, meaning that you shouldn't be surprised when I lay our my terms unless… something fishy is going on here?" he needn't see the faces of the officers standing around him to guess that he was right.

Tae got it now, how could he be so stupid. King was playing it smart, this whole entire time. He's trying to give off the feeling of some young, trigger happy fuckboy who sucked at making decision. But he broke that image of him just when the Japanese thought the worse, making them rethink their opinion of him. At the same time, he's killing two birds with one bullet. By getting the Prime Minister's permission of reconstructing the destroyed Abyss base, he will let Red Arrow have legitimate and unrestricted access to the precious samples that they have been itching to get their hands on. King hated to admit it but King's one hell of a snake. Hell he'd probably call him that.

"Uh… Tae, why are you smiling like that? Stop that, it's creepy."

"It's… pft… nothing King."

The PM's previously tired and desperate expression had been transformed into that of a surprised, baffled and dumbfounded one. "…I see… Now that you have mentioned it, your terms are reasonable." She coughed to her fist, recomposing herself. "Then, does this concludes our meeting, gentlemen?" It seemed that no one was in room for arguments of disagreement from both the Army and Navy. The PM nodded in conclusion. "Then the merging of the Japanese navy and Red Arrow private militia is an affirmative."

After that, the meeting was adjourned and Red Arrow was allowed to leave.

"Only you could pull off a deal like that King, looks like all of those years you spent a teen selling weapons didn't turn out to be a waste after all." The people from Red Arrow were escorted by the sailors from the navy to the helipad area where they would board their ride and fly out of here. "And you weren't exactly serious on pushing that button, were you?"

King grinned. "Tae, don't exaggerate it. Any competent business man could do that, me, I'm just more persuasive than most. And… think, do we even have a button that stupid in the first place?" He said with his grin, but that grin slowly fades away when a particular thought came to his mind. "But, I'm still not a hundred percent sure if merging is a good idea. Sure, there're the pros and cons, but will it be worth it?"

Tae took a moment to answer. "Regardless, what's done is done. If you choose it, we'll follow it King."

The helipad finally came to view and the Red Arrow private militia's osprey was already prepared to leave. King let his men enter first, Tae being the second to the last. Before stepping a foot on the ramp of the aircraft, King let himself to get a look on the rising sun above, its glare hurting his eyes. The Japs were probably in turmoil right now, after all, he did just request the impossible, despite the agreement of the PM herself. But hey, that's the joy of running a business.

Because in his line of work, personal matters were to be set aside, everything that happens—regardless of how worse the outcome or result is, it will always be business.

* * *

"King, the PM sent me the details about these girls already; you want to look at them?" Tae asked.

Now they were back at their base in Osaka city, and King was taking a leisure sip of his warm cup of coffee. He gave Tae a weird look, his eye rising a little bit. "Well that's fast." He set aside his mug, walking over to his partially blind friend who was holding to a brown paper file. "Can't they do this through e-mail or something…?" regardless, he still opened the paper with ease. He proceeded to read through the important paper, while taking his time.

 _Mister Samuel Valentine, this report contains everything you need to know about our Kanmusu, however, we are holding back some private information for security reasons._

 _KANMUSU DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH TEAM_

 _ **Lead developer and researcher:**_ _Doctor Shinjo Takanashi  
_ _ **Assistant developer:**_ _Doctor Ooyama Miko_

 _Introduction_

 _The Kanmusu are the closest thing to the term 'perfect' soldiers. Given, it is not as close as the other existing combat purposed android, but they are the most flexible and competent group that technology has to offer. A Kanmusu is like a normal human female, however, they are built and designed to be able to perform feats that would compare to that of a normal warship vessel. Just like any normal human, they learn through experience, combat experience especially and memorization. However, should the commanding officer requires an immediate result, the Kanmusu are able to receive information, excluding experience, and memory via wireless transfer._

 _Functionality_

 _The Kanmusu are designed to look, act, behave and live like human. The 'personalities' or 'behaviors' coded into them are absolute, there is no way changing them. Should a commanding officer force a Kanmusu to behave the way they want them to; each of them may react differently. Please note that CO may find displeasing and unsuited personalities or behavior in Kanmusu units. This is intentional. The reason for that is because the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Forces wants to make the Kanmusu function and act as a human being should and not mindless one tracked robots with monotonous personality._

 _For combat purposes, it is best to see them in action directly since in the end, that is the only way of proving their true function and capability. The Kanmusu will be able to do incredible feats that no other androids or any other smart robotic drones could do, they were designed to function as both a human and a ship, but their ship mode is completely different than what one would imagine. Their armaments (see latter section) are designed similarly to actual warship armaments. Similarly, because in size, they are far smaller than the actual ones, however, their function is the same._

 _Ship Types_

 _Kanmusu are grouped into different types and different class. There are a lot of classes, and each class is represented differently in terms of appearance, capabilities and skills. However, this section will only focus on the different ship types._

 _Battleships – Famous for their abilities to inflict heavy damage with their equally heavy firepower. In naval warfare, they are slow but high armor rating makes up in defense for what they loss in maneuverability. Equipped with large main guns, and a very high rating of armor._

 _Heavy Cruisers – Well balanced. More fire power than light cruisers and more resistant due to slightly higher armor rating. In naval warfare, they lack Anti-Submarine Equipment. Equipped with medium guns, speed and armor._

 _Light Cruisers – Similar to heavy cruisers, very well balanced and flexible, but not as much when it comes to firepower and armor. In naval warfare, they are equipped with Anti-Submarine Equipment. Similarly, naval guns are categorized as medium and armor rating are not that high._

 _Destroyers – In ocean warfare, capable of performing fast maneuver, mainly intended to act as escorts for bigger ships like the Battleships. High evasion, low resource consumption, & ASW-capable, but lacks armor & firepower. Small naval guns, but faster than all ship types._

 _Standard Carriers – This type of Kanmusu are capable of launching fighter planes and are capable of seeing targets from a very far distance. On land, they can still launch their planes, be it fighters, bombers or even recon planes. Equipped with longbows capable of launching arrows which will then break off into a small plane of their choosing._

 _Light Carriers – The same as standard carriers, however they can attack submarines in naval warfare. In ground, they can still launch their planes, but not as much as the standard carriers. Similar to standard carriers, though may not be the same case to some sub-types like seaplane tenders._

 _Submarine – Limited to only torpedoes, there are some submarines with the abilities to launch planes. In naval warfare, completely dominates in night battles._

 _Repair Ship – Akashi is the only repair ship constructed. She is capable of fixing fleet personnel, whether it is simply minor fixing or a huge scale reconstruction. For more information about Akashi, see latter notes._

 _Footnotes: each of the Kanmusu is equipped with their own unique traits, skills and abilities regardless of whether they came from the same class. For example, one particular submarine has better eyesight than the others, rivaling a carrier._

 _Armaments_

 _A Kanmusu's riggings are only capable of being worn by them only, they cannot share a rigging. However, when it comes armaments like their naval guns, torpedo launchers, planes, bows then it is possible. However, absurdity like equipping a destroyer with a battleship's main guns is highly impossible. Their armaments are also repairable, which can also be repaired by a repair ship, or directly to the Kanmusu Research and Development team._

 _Should a Kanmusu's armaments be destroyed in the middle of battle, it is highly advised for them to not use them anymore since it may lead to unnecessary accidents that might endanger a Kanmusu. Explosions are usually the result of Kanmusu fiddling around with a destroyed or malfunctioning gun._

 _Repair_

 _There are three states of damage to determine. First is the light damaged state. At this state, damage is light and is easily reparable. No medium amount of resources, such as bauxite, steel, oil and ammo are needed to replenish or repair the damaged Kanmusu. The next stage is the medium damaged stage. At this stage, more resources are needed to fully replenish a Kanmusu. The last and third stage is the heavy damaged state. A lot of resources will be needed to replenish a Kanmusu, should they be anymore damaged than the last stage, then Kanmusu may be prone to sinking._

 _There are alternatives to heal or repair a damaged Kanmusu. The main and absolute way is to consume bauxite, this will allow a fast regeneration to repair broken body parts, missing limbs or any other physical damages done. Steel could be used to momentarily patch and increase resistance, allowing brief durability for Kanmusu, but not a lot. Ammo is consumed to maintain ammunition levels, should a Kanmusu be low on ammo, they could resupply for more. Oil is consumed similarly to water. The alternatives are to give Kanmusu human food. Allowing the consumption of human food will give Kanmusu energy depending on what nutrients it contains. Consuming food may be the best solution and alternative, since Kanmusu are capable of taste. However, eating food won't allow Kanmusu to regenerate._

 _If a Kanmusu is damaged to a point where they are unable to regenerate, then it is important to direct the attention to the repair ship or any other developer or researcher of the Kanmusu project. Akashi, being the only repair ship, is capable of repairing Kanmusu provided if there are available resources for the repair ship to use. Noted that a Kanmusu is only considered 'dead' when their main processing unit, similarly to the human brain which is also located in their heads, is destroyed. If their processing unit is destroyed, then repair or attempts for repair will be useless._

 _Ending notes_

 _*Repair time will be different for each ship types. Bigger Kanmusu requires more resources and time to be completely replenished._

King was just about done with reading the entire report, and he had to admit, it's quite an impressive feat that the Japanese were able to build those… ship girls. He'd seen drones before in his life, from the unmanned ones to the relatively smart and independent ones like the ones that the U.S military was using for their fights in the fields to minimize the number of human casualties in battle. He considered on building drones like that for Red Arrow himself but at that time, getting drone technology was not so easy. ADAM implant was created as a means to develop drones, but he couldn't find anyone capable of completely building a kick ass and gun shooting drone.

King retreated to the back, where he was using it as a place to plan for private operations. He opened a file cabinet on the corner of the room and neatly stored the report. Since the whole town was evacuated before people could do anything, there were still stuffs here that people did not bring along with them. So he put the thing to good use. He walked over to a dusty metal chair, he dusted the chair with his hands before eventually sitting on it. Though the sun's up already, a small sleep won't hurt him. He took off his eye patch, revealing the nasty and eye wincing scar that went along his left eye. The same scar that made him 'King'. He was deep in thought, thinking of what will happen tomorrow. The Japs will probably send Tae a message in the next hour.

"Bah, I'll hear what they'll have to say tomorrow…" he said, before dozing off to sleep.

* * *

The next day, Tae walked into the office and this woke King up. The young head of the private militia woke up lightly alarmed, but he soon calmed down knowing that it was Tae.

"Morning King, didn't find you in your room and I was right to guess that you're here." Tae was holding a mug of something fresh, and from the smell alone, King could tell that it was coffee. "Here, have some Joe."

King accepted the warm mug with a small utterance of thanks before proceeding to down the entire thing down in one gulp. He allowed the bittersweet sensation run down his throat and instantly, he felt fresh already. "So, did our 'partner' send anything new to us?" he asked, putting the mug down on his desk.

"Yup, they sure did." Tae nodded in confirmation. He walked off to the window, where King could view the activity which was going on outside. Unfortunately for Tae, his lack of vision prevented him from seeing clearly. "They have given us the green light to rebuild our base on the destroyed Abyss-al base. I've sent our construction crew, along with several men from the assault team. That leaves us with fewer personnel active on duty here, and we still haven't finished the renovations here yet." He sighed loudly. "Maybe it's better to let the Japs do some of the work for us?"

"No can do T, if I do that they'll either figure out what we're really after or they could know about our organization more than what they're supposed to. You know I like my company private, we're running a goddamned private militia organization for god's sake man." King argued a little bit too heatedly.

Tae shrugged his shoulders, his coat's fabric rubbing. "Regardless King, if we don't act soon and prioritize how we'll run our soon to be joint organization with the Japs, we'll have a hard time pushing through especially if we're trying to make it look like we're the ones who have things under control and not the Japs."

"Oh you can leave that to me, because I know what to do." King brushed off Tae's reminder off handedly.

If one could see his eyes, they would notice Tae rolling them sideways. "That's one part of what they sent me last night…"

"Wait, there's more?"

"Yup. You're to go back to the Japanese naval headquarter in Yokosuka to observe our newest ship girls assets. Unfortunately though, you can't bring any of our men since they'll be busy doing things here and at our soon to be constructed base. Oh and in case if you're wondering, with the tools we've borrowed from the Japs, the funds given to us and our own tools, it'll take three weeks to complete the base. Not fully, but at least we'll be able to operate there. Construction damage weren't that bad, at least not as bad as we thought it would be so it should be pretty quick. The problem is transportation. We'll have the risk of several Abyss interference while having tools and resources transported there, which is why I'm sending more men from our assault team."

King grunted while walking out from the room. "'lright, I'll be going to Yokosuka now, keep me in touch."

"Roger. And I informed the pilot earlier, he's waiting for you at the helipad."

"Mm."


	3. Just Cause

Despite the whole, 'business, nothing personal' kind of code he had going on in his group; King always felt that it's a necessity to know each and every one of his men well. It will affect his men's morale greatly; he can't always be too serious, otherwise he won't be as young as twenty five. Life's still long, so he'll damn well try his best to enjoy it.

Currently inside his Osprey, he was on his way back to Yokosuka alone. He figured that bringing along company was fine, but since everyone was busy, he couldn't. However, it's not like he needed someone to accompany him in the first place.

"Hey pilot, once you dropped me down, head back to base asap. Tae's going to need all pilots for any assignments he has in store." King told the pilot, raising his voice a little.

"Roger that King. But are you seriously going to rebuild a base on that destroyed base?" the pilot asked.

"Yup. The Japs gave us the permission already." King said informatively, but then, his face took a sour turn. "We'll rebuild it so that it'll look like our old main base… man fuck 'em. Fuck the Abyss man…" remembering his old base and past incident caused him to get like this, it looked like the pilot was well aware of that.

"Don't worry King, we'll get them. Juan was killed by them; I want as much blood from them as you do. The rest of us do, in fact." The pilot said with a quiet tone.

"…Who's Juan?"

"Mi hermano."

The trip became quiet after that.

At exactly 0700, he arrived at the Japanese Naval Base Yokosuka. The pilot descended the Osprey for landing, landing at the same spot where they were yesterday. The speed of the rotors slowly decreases, but not stopping. The engine of the aircraft was not fully turned off, since the pilot had to return to base immediately as soon as King dropped himself off. King waited, standing, while the ramp lowers automatically. As it lowers, he could see the host who will be greeting him.

The first thing he saw was white, a white cap. And then the 'smiling' face of a man older than him only by a couple of years, a naval officer uniform with the rank indication on the shoulder and sleeve. It's that Yoshikawa guy, and King did not know why, but he disliked him already. King hopped off the ramp, and the aircraft behind him was about to take off.

"Mister King, pleasure to meet you." Admiral Yoshikawa stepped forward, speaking in fluent English though there was still the thick accent that most Japanese has when speaking English.

"You don't have to speak English with me, I'm well aware of Japanese." King replied sassily in Japanese, his own accent however was indistinguishable. In fact, he spoke like a local.

"Ah, looks like the commander wasn't lying." Yoshikawa laughed lightly. "Anyway, we're not here for chats, let's get to business. Follow me."

The Admiral walked, leaving King to follow behind him. In the middle of their journey, King spoke. "So what is it exactly we're doing here? Are you just gonna showcase a couple of your girls to me and show me what they could do? If so, then I think I got an idea of what I'm about to learn."

"No, oh no. Not only that. We will also be discussing construction of the base." The Admiral answered.

"Construction… but I thought that you'll leave the construction to us?"

"Oh we still will. However, you lack the knowledge on what facilities should be made available for the girls to supply them with all their needs. These girls may look human and behave like one, but in fact, they are not. I am not saying that I view them as robots, mind you, but as their subordinate, I am requiring myself to view them as human."

"Huh… quite the dedication there, admiral."

"It's a part of my job."

As their conversation went on, they have entered the pier. King figured that they will be going to a specially made docking area or hangar where he would meet these Ship Girls. But a pier… the development team was not lying when they said that these girls were more convenient than usual warships, since they could be dispatched through normal piers and not specially made docks. On the distance, he could see a small group of people standing.

"Girls!" Admiral Yoshikawa suddenly shouted, and it got a reaction from the group standing just a few meters away. King later identified them as Ship Girls as soon as he saw their clothing. He recognized some of them, having seen them during his meeting with the PM. Especially the one that stood out the most, Nagato. "We will be conducting the practice battle right now. I have Mister King with me to observe your battle performance, he is here as a part of the pact that was formed."

None of the said anything, they all agreed wordlessly. As King watched them go, probably to get themselves ready for the practice battle, he could not help but wonder just how far these girls could go. Because by standards, androids—smart ones moreover—are pretty rare in Asian countries. The only country he knew that used smart androids freely in all of their military operation was China, but even they needed help from a couple of European countries like Germany and Russia.

"Something on your mind?" King was still looking at the girls' disappearing form, even when admiral Yoshikawa was talking to him.

"Nothing… just wondering… do you guys really have to design them as girls?" King said, turning to face the naval officer. "Not being sexist and all that but is there really a need to make them look so… human?"

It was brief, but King could see it as if it was there right from the start. The young admiral's faraway look disappeared almost instantly, giving King his friendly and easy going smile.

"I asked myself that question all the time. When I graduated from naval officer school, I was immediately put into the rank of admiral." He tapped his badge which was stitched to his uniform. "This here, this's just for show. I was not even a lieutenant, much less a vice admiral. And the first order I was given was to act as the commanding officer for these girls. Knowing that I'll eventually send them to their deaths is something that bothers me, it affected me in a way that it made me know that I'll eventually regret whatever orders I'll be giving them."

An uncomfortable eastern breeze wisped past them.

"I've heard about you and your group, Red Arrow. You used to conduct operations in the Middle East and European countries. And eventually, your main base was hit by Abyss-al attack. What does it feel? To know that you'll eventually lose one if not ten good men in a day?"

"…" King did not answer, yet. Using his hand, he took off his eye patch, showing the young but older admiral the scar that cost him his eye. But he opened his scarred eye, showing nothing but red. "The feeling was exactly the same as losing this eye of mine. The first few weeks hurt like hell, but now, it's there to serve as a reminder. Nothing more, nothing less." He then fixed his eye patch back on again, patting it into place.

The admiral sighed. "That hard huh…? I'll worry about that later, now; let's see the girls' performance."

King shrugged without saying anything.

* * *

"Hm… so you guys weren't lying when you said that these girls were built to replicate what warships could do." King mused out in a particular tone at what he was currently seeing with the admiral on the pier.

Before him, or at least meters away from him, the girls he saw earlier were conducting their mock battle on the sea. The girls could really skate on the water's surface, as in legit skating, similar to those thin legged ice skating ballerinas that he used to see on sports news channels. And oh man, now he knew what the prime minister meant by how good these girls are. Those girls were shooting naval guns, well at least smaller version of them, around as if they were small arms weaponry! And… and… did that girl's arrows just turned into planes? They did! King was definitely, definitely impressed. Hell he was starting to regret not knowing that his ADAM implants could be used to create something like this. Regardless, what's done is done.

"So, how are they, impressed Mister King?" admiral Yoshikawa asked beside him.

"Definitely." King replied without holding back. "But I'm still new to this whole naval strategies, I don't usually deal with sea based operations unless it involves infiltrating a highly secured military oil platform or something."

"Ah, do not worry. Because in future assignments, me and my fellow officers—whom have yet to be decided—will be the one doing most of thinking for sorties." Reassured the admiral to him.

"Then what will I do?"

"You will have direct command to the girls. But since they are technically Japanese property, commands will be only given from my side until I say otherwise."

"So basically, unless if it's really necessary, then I couldn't order these girls to do anything? Is that it?"

"That's basically it."

"That's acceptable."

He resumed on observing the girls. And what he could get from what he was seeing, was that these girls were lined up in formations similar to the ones regular warships do. Do their weapons affect them? Because the way he saw it, one of them was not having a hard time carrying around multiple double barreled naval guns which were almost the same size as their body. God, he could only imagine the recoil… but he supposed that these girls were built to deal with very, very high recoils, explaining the lack of difficulty in using those types of guns. He saw a couple of the girls, all lined up, firing their guns consecutively, starting from the very left. That must be one of their strategies.

"Hey… won't they get hurt if this continues?" King asked, beginning to get more curious.

"Hm?" Admiral Yoshikawa hummed. "During practice? Not to worry, they are only equipped with training rounds, they basically meant nothing to the girls. The girls have very, very tough skin made to replicate the thick hull of warships, so training rounds won't hurt them. It will sting, but it won't damage them."

King listened in to the admiral's information silently, his eyes still fixed on the scene that was going on before him. The strategy they did proved to be successful, because the opposing team was forced to retreat a few clicks away. He saw that the other side was launching more planes, damn those arrows are awesome, and it seemed that those are… dive bombers? Oh yes they were. And it seemed that those planes, regardless of how small they look, will still be able to deal the same damage as a normal plane would. So, in short, the bombs would pretty be overkill when used a normal person.

"Hey… correct me if I'm wrong here. So the smaller ones are destroyers, the bigger or older looking ones are either a light cruiser or a heavy cruiser, the ones with the big guns are battleships and the ones who could launch planes are aircraft carriers, am I right?" King asked the admiral for confirmation.

Admiral Yoshikawa nodded. "Yup, that is exactly correct Mister King. A fleet consists of different ships from different types; let's say if we are fighting for aerial superiority, then an aircraft carrier is a must along with several destroyers as escorts. But if it is to deal heavy damage to enemies or simply straight up domination of firepower, then battleships and heavy cruisers are your best bet. But if it is during nighttime operations, a submarine would dominate."

"I can see why…" King muttered slowly. "Anyway, I'm good with what I've seen for now. Now, I'd like to see the facilities required for these girls."

"Very well, please follow me."

The admiral led him to another section of the base, after dismissing the girls of course. King soon found himself in a more industrial part of the base, this must be the factory. And he was right to assume so. The heavy machinery, mechanics dressed in dark grey clothing and forklifts were a dead giveaway. There were also tall cranes, probably used for the maintenance of real warships and not ship girls. However, for a factory, there weren't too many cargos here. Perhaps they have been moved to the storage bay.

Several mechanics rushed past them, but King paid them no mind. "Where are we going, exactly?"

"We're going to meet the head developer in one of the factories. You see Mister King, before the war with the Abyss, these factories are non-existent. They had just been recently constructed since the girls were put to standby for a long time, most of them were not even activated yet. The people around are busy because this is their first actual time using the factories and facilities, is what I've been told."

"I see, so how far are we?" King asked again.

"We're here, in fact."

They entered a large hangar like building, its front façade was wide open showing the inside. There were boxes, forklifts and mechanics everywhere; there were also a lot of people dressed in lab coats. One particular person, also dressed in a lab coat and a hardhat, was standing on an elevated platform, shouting what seemed to be instructions. He couldn't quite see the person due to the distance, but it the admiral was there to remedy that for him.

"Shinjo-sensei! There's someone I'd like you to meet!" Yoshikawa shouted loudly for the man on the platform to hear. The man on the platform focused all attention to the admiral, before whispering to the person beside him, whom King assumed to be his assistant. The man with the lab coat walked briskly over to an industrial elevator and used it to go down.

They approached the approaching man and King could now take a closer look at him. Doctor Shinjo Takanashi, or Shinjo-sensei in Japanese, was as old as your stereotypical head researcher. He was balding, that's definite when looking at the lack of presence of hair on his head. His face was easily indistinguishable from the other older people here, but what stood out the most were his bowtie and circular glasses that allowed him to look clearly with his worn out eyes. He was shorter than the admiral, making him shorter than King. The doctor was carrying a small walking board and the board had paper clipped into it.

"Yoshikawa-kun, what is it, I'm currently busy at the moment." The old man's tone was irate, looked like he did not like it when people disturbed him from his job.

"I know that, Shinjo-sensei. But I have an important person to introduce you to." The admiral took a small step away, allowing the doctor to get a look at King. "This is Mister Samuel Valentines, he was the one you've wanted to talk to for a whi—hey sensei?"

The doctor ignored the naval officer. He dropped his walking board and began to walk in a fast pace towards King. He grabbed the one eyed man's hands, his aged eyes opening widely as if he had found something that interest him. King was a bit alarmed, but he knew that the doctor meant no harm to him.

"Young man, your technology is superb, they are beyond superb, they are life changing." The doctor said in a very exaggerated and breathless manner. "I don't think that we could finish the Kanmusu program without your technology particularly that chip. What do you call it?"

"ADAM. ADAM implant." King answered.

"ADAM… what does it stands for?"

"Armageddon Dermal Action Module."

"Ah, fitting considering what it does. It physically enhances the capabilities of whoever has the implant… including androids like the kanmusu." The doctor said with marvel. "I do not know if you know but those things are the perfect solution to our problem."

"How so?" King asked.

"You see, we had this one major problem of not being able to make the kanmusu's physical strength a reality, which also affected their ability of using their main guns. So in short, without that implant, our kanmusu will just be normal day to day android who looked like regular girls. In shorter conclusion, you can thank yourself for creating a fully functioning fleet of battle ready androids which are also currently the most advanced form of technology in the entire world."

"That's good to know, Shinjo-sensei." King said, a huge grin on his face. "But I'm here to discuss the facilities that are required in order for the girls to operate properly. Admiral Yoshikawa gave me a clue on what I should expect but I'd like to see for myself."

"Ah, yes, of course, please, follow me."

The doctor led him and the admiral into the factory, where there was an elevator's platform.

"We are going underground to look at the facilities, please be in mind that they have just been created so additional improvements are still available." The doctor said, pushing a particular button on the elevator. The elevator went down, creating industrial noises. The noise from above slowly fades away the deeper they went. After a good few minutes of waiting, they elevator stopped.

"Gentlemen, behold the repair docks."

The scene before them showed a lot of scientist moving here and there with multiple mechanical arms doing the actual work. "As you can see, those mechanical arms will be the ones who do most of the actual work. The scientists there are only there to make sure that they are functioning properly. Currently… we have a kanmusu present for repairs, she somehow managed to get herself damaged, due to a collision I believed." The doctor leaned in closer, holding out a mic which he'd kept god knows where. "Inazuma-chan, are you ready?"

" _H—Hai, nanodesu."_ A soft and nervous voice called back.

"Please look at the farthest platform, where Inazuma is at. Though it's only a minor collision, we are using it as a chance to test just how well our repairs would be." He brought the mic back close to his mouth. "Do it."

And the mechanical hands went to work. Inazuma suffered a minor fracture on her head, which could be dangerous when not treated but not at all fatal. The mechanical hands brought out multiple tools that King was not familiar with, one particular object was a small beaker filled with this shiny metallic liquid that looked like mercury. The robotic hands gently poured a little amount of the liquid on to Inazuma's forehead, with her whimpering as they did so. Then another hand went to replace the previous one, this time bringing thin sheets of metals to be stuck to the kanmusu's forehead as if they were band aids. King could not believe his eyes. As soon as the steel bands were placed on Inazuma's forehead, they melt away, and disappeared as if Inazuma had directly absorbed them.

"What the…?" King was unable to complete his question due to him not be able to comprehend what just happened.

"That, young man, is what makes a kanmusu's maintenance a very hard thing. Without the proper equipment and materials, you could only treat minor injuries like the one Inazuma just had. Let's say… one of the girls got their limbs shot off, it would take more than just steel bands and liquid metal to properly heal them or replace their lost body parts. However, the most pressing concern is damage that happens internally. And one more thing; the girls were built to function as normal human beings, they may not get sick, but they can still feel what we feel. For example, diarrhea is bad for them as it is for us." The doctor said while readjusting his bowtie. "Next, let us get to the armory. And I've got a kanmusu on duty over there too."

"Let me guess, it's this one called Akashi?" King kind of expected to have seen Akashi on the level above, considering that she's a repair ship.

"Yes, indeed. So you did read those reports… who would've thought." The doctor said, impressed at knowing that King actually read the report he sent. "Anyway, let us proceed." The elevator descended once more, taking the three men lower down a level. Instantly, the atmosphere changed.

King could smell gunpowder, oil and all sorts of stench that was strong to smell. The smell of metal was almost stinging. There were less people in lab coats in this level; instead it seemed that this level was mostly occupied by mechanics. King saw more of those robotic arms, some were welding gun barrels and some were busy assembling god knows what. The place was not as crowded as the one above, but King still won't step a foot in there, he will let the Japs work and leave them be.

"This is the armory. In here, we construct the kanmusu's weapons such as cannons, torpedoes, planes and tertiary armaments such as depth charges." Doctor Shinjo briefly introduced. "As I have said before, I have Akashi working on a weapon that will be assigned to the kanmusu." The doctor pulled out his mic once again, bringing it close to his mouth. "Akashi, how goes the battleship cannons?"

" _They're doing well Shinjo-sensei!"_ an enthusiastic and definitely feminine boomed loud enough even for King to hear when he was not close to the doctor. _"We are still working on the barrel's construction, the process will be quicker than our estimation due to effort we pulled for the day!"_

King could not quite see where Akashi is, much less even know how she looked like, but he could take a wild guess that that pink haired woman who's dressed in a lab coat is her—oh he's right, she's waving back.

"Good job Akashi, keep up the good work." The doctor said.

" _Thank you, Sensei!"_

"We're done here, let's return topside." The elevator ascended, but on the way up, it suddenly stopped; putting both three men off balance. Doctor Shinjo looked around, his face showing signs of panic and dread and King was about to know why.

 _Code red, code red, code red! All hands on station! This is not a drill!_

"That's the emergency Abyss alarm!" Admiral Yoshikawa exclaimed agitatedly. "They're attacking us?!"

"It seemed so mate!" King said. Despite the whole ordeal going on, he's strangely calm. Must have been due to the experience of seeing his base getting crushed to nothing but rubbles. "Sensei, we need to get this elevator up again, is there any emergency button or something?"

"T—There's an emergency start up lever over there, here help me!"

With the combined strength of three men, the elevator's emergency start up lever kick started the elevator's mechanism to function again, allowing them to get back topside. Topside, many mechanics and other non-combatant personnel were in panic. Both King and the admiral knew what had to be done.

"Shinjo-sensei, please lead your researchers and the others away from the water and into the base! This is emergency code number five and I'm going to respond immediately!" Admiral Yoshikawa instructed the aged doctor.

"I understand!" the doctor fled, shouting to get the attention of the others around him. Meanwhile, the admiral and King were already off the area, running as fast as they could to report to the other officers on duty.

They reached the pier, but there was not a single ship girl present. But they saw a distant figure dressed in all white rushing towards them. "Admiral Yoshikawa! Thank god you're okay!" a female dressed in a naval officer's uniform gasped in exhaustion due to all the running. "Sir, where were you?! The Abyss managed to get past our detection, and they're about to attack!"

"Tell me something I don't know vice admiral Tanaka!" admiral Yoshikawa griped harshly. "Where's the commander? And where are the girls?"

"They were given the clear to sortie! You weren't here to I was instructed to order them!" they could hear cannons firing in the distant, the alarms going off seemed to be going endlessly. "It was a direct command from the commander himself, sir!"

"…Dammit!" admiral Yoshikawa nearly stomped his foot to the ground. "Did those girls get the chance to resupply and restock?"

"They did, I made sure of that sir!"

"Shit…" the admiral mumbled. "They still won't be ready to face real threats like this." He focused his attention back to the female officer. "Do you know the enemy's fleet composition? How many and what are they?"

"Uh… five destroyers, four light cruisers and three battleship; one who's also the flagship!" vice admiral Tanaka answered, almost fumbling with her words.

"DAMMIT! THEY SENT TWO FLEETS?!" Admiral Yoshikawa cursed without restraint over the knowledge of the enemy's fleet. He then took a step forward towards King, laying a hand on the younger man's shoulder. "Mister King, I think that this will be our very first objective as a combined taskforce together." Though his face was showing discomfort, King's wasn't. In fact, it's the opposite.

"I'll help, but you'll only have to do with me alone. My boys are busy with the base's construction, so they can't do anything." King told them. He then raised a hand before both officers could complain. "Don't worry, I have a plan. But say, do you a speedboat lying around? Oh, and a… very, very, very powerful RPG?"

Needless to say, the Japs have them.

* * *

"Tae, the Abyss attacked Yokosuka." King was on the pier, his required speedboat and bazooka were ready for him to use. He jumped on the boat, readying it for a drive.

" _ **WHAT?!**_ _They have the balls to do that?!"_

"I wouldn't know about balls, considering how most of them looked like women, but fuck it. I'm going to deal with them, please be on standby just in case." Once he got the engines started, he speeds away immediately, towards the chaos. "I'm going to be working with the Japs, but be sure to stay in touch with me." he said. "Oh and Tae," he grinned. "play _that_ for me will you?"

 _"At a time like this- roger that King."_

" _Playing MKAlieZ"_

King was already off the pier in matters of minutes, his bazooka, which was a very, very beautiful thing if he might add, was on the back ready for him to use. He did not recognize the bazooka's exact type, simply because he didn't have the time to do such thing. He must respond immediately to the attack and aid the ship girls who are currently engaging enemy units. On the way there, his communications device beeped.

" _Mister Samuel Valentine, I hope you know what you're doing over there!"_ It's admiral Yoshikawa, and from the sound of it, he didn't seem too happy knowing that he'd just charge into the fray with only a boat and a bazooka.

"Not too worry admiral, I know what I'm doing!" King shouted with confidence over the sounds of cannons and destruction that was currently going on in the distance.

As the speedboat rushed on, King could hear the distant sound of cannons becoming louder and louder. He's about to enter the area of combat. Honestly speaking, he's a little bit worried about this. This was his first time entering a combat situation like this. If only he was better armed... "Admiral, patch me up with the leading flagship, I'll discuss my plans with her."

" _Patching you through…"_

"Hello, this is King from Red Arrow private militia speaking, is this the Japanese fleet's flagship?" King asked, not slowing down his boat a bit.

" _Who is this?!"_ he recognized that voice. _"Reinforcements? Thank goodness, they're pushing us back quicker than we anticipated! Some of us suffered minor damaged already and that's including one of our carriers!"_ panic and disarray were completely distinguishable in her tone. _"How many are you?!"_

"Just one man." King grinned.

 _" **WHAT?! ARE YOU CRAZY?!"**_

"I asked myself that all the time girly." King said with a snicker. "For now, just keep on trying to hold on, I got a plan."

He took a sharp left, completely off from his original route. His plan was for the ship girls to keep the Abyss-al fleet on hold, while he snuck in from the back and deliver sweet and glorious SBS on their rear with his bazooka. But of course, just like any other situation involving reality, it's easier said than done, which was why he asked for two very, very, very powerful bazookas, yay! King brought one of the two bazookas near him, ready for him to use. He could see the cannons going off in the distance to his right. Those must be the girls, and black shadowy figures were looming over in the distant, those must be the Abyss freaks. He kept going, charging full throttle on this boat. The sooner he'd reach their flank, the sooner he could try these babies out. However, these alone won't be enough to kill them, so he'll need cooperation.

"This is King to flagship."

" _What is it King?"_

"I'm going to pick the targets off one by one, it's quite misty today so I'll be using it as cover. If you see one of them suddenly combust into flames or explosion, focus target on that one and deliver the killing blow!"

" _Roger!"_

"Okay King, now, let's get started." He saw his entry point; this is where he'll snipe with his bazooka. As expected, the mist was thick, this was both a good thing and a bad thing. He couldn't see them, and the enemies couldn't see him; either way, they're both fucked. King raised and stood on the boat, both bazookas ready on his shoulders. This was not his first time dual wielding a bazooka, but this was his first time doing it on a boat on the sea. "Flagship, I'm calling the targets." He scanned away, picking up his first victim. "I'm seeing the one with the long hair, black hair, on the most right, that's a battleship, yeah?"

" _Yes she is!"_

"Okay, I'll fire first." He aimed both bazookas towards the designated target's general direction, namely her rear end. He pulled the trigger.

 **ZOOOOM!**

Two highly explosive rockets zoomed away towards their target, and luckily, it was a direct hit! He didn't have to tell the flagship to shoot when he saw that a third shot was delivered from the ship girl's side, killing the battleship. He was about to cheer, but then remembered that there was still a lot of floating about. He picked his next target, this time another tall figure but on the farthest right. It seemed that they have yet to figure out where his shot came from, that's good. He fired off two more rockets at the unsuspecting figure, and just like the first one, it's a hit. Immediately, a large shell came crashing on the poor soul courtesy of the ship girls, ending her and sending her sinking to iron bottom. King fired off two more rockets, this time hitting another battleship. It didn't do as much damage as the first one, considering that his second rocket merely grazed her armor, but she was still sunk when a much larger shell came crashing down on to her person. He saw planes being launched off in the distant, it seemed that the ship girls managed to regain air superiority now that most of the big shots have been taken down. He saw one squad of planes dropping down bombs right on top of a group of those alien looking Abyss, blowing them up, or down in this case since it's at sea.

What remained of the enemy now knew that they have someone firing from their flank, so they're sending some of them to stop him. It's those creepy looking alien lookalikes, watching them alone made King's skin crawly. King identified them to be the enemy's destroyer class, due to their size, so one hit from his bazookas should do the trick. He aimed and placed the approaching threats within his line of sight. His bazookas went off with a loud zooming noise and the rockets hit the two destroyers straight on, transforming them into nothing but scrap metal. King heard something coming from his side, shit; he's too focused on the front that he'd neglected the sides. They're sending the bigger ones to him. King abandoned one of the bazookas for the other; confident that he could land a crippling hit on her. The music which was currently going all electronic on his ears, increased his motivation and confident. He took aim, and fire. And the heavy cruiser exploded, literally. He checked why and noticed that one of the girls predicted that he'd go after that one so they must've synchronized their shot along with his.

" _King! It's working! They're pulling back, get away from there!"_ the flagship's voice boomed in excitement over the result of King's plans.

"One step ahead of you, girly~!" King said in a sing-song manner as he charged forward instead of moving away. He could see that there're only about four or three more contacts left for them to finish, but he wasn't going to give that satisfaction to the girls.

" _Mercenary operative, I saw your boat,_ _ **but**_ _ **why are you rushing towards the enemy?!**_ _"_

"Just cause, baby, just cause." With the boat full on full throttle, and distance between him and the enemies closing, he's easy target. The music dropped, and the female voice sings.

One of the surviving battleships took notice of King's speedboat and King himself. She readied her main guns, definitely for firing. King expected this, no, he knew that she'll do that. So he increased his boat's speed, turned his ADAM implant on and readied himself to eject from the speeding boat. A few meters before impact from the shell that was launched at him, King ejected, a parachute going off behind him. The momentum build up caused the chute to pull King up into the air and away from impact. There were about five kilograms of C-4 inside that boat, not to mention the explosive warheads of the bazookas he used earlier. As he was pulled into the air because of the momentum and suddenness of pulling out his chute, the large shell of the enemy's battleship cannon hit the boat, causing one hell of an explosion that even singed his skin a little bit despite the distance. He also got struck by several fragments of metal pieces from god knows what, and the oil from the boat caused a spectacular sight, making it as if the water itself was on fire.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" he pulled desperately on his chute's handle, trying so hard to bring himself away from the fire. Thankfully, he succeeded, and slowly dipping his body into the water. He took off the safety harness of the parachute, letting it float around somewhere. He then swam to a piece of floating debris that was the only leftover from the boat that was destroyed. Fortunately, the debris was still intact and it could support his weight. "Fuuuuck… that's one hell of a show…" he winced as he began pulling out pieces of metal fragments from his skin. Seawater was definitely not helping his case.

" _Hey, private militia operative, what happened? Do you copy?"_ King's communications device buzzed to life, starting off rather buzzy before eventually smoothing out.

"King to flagship, enemy fleet eliminated. Casualties, a boat and two RPGs…" he snorted. "Just… pick me up." He finished lamely. It's beginning to get dark, and he's in the middle of the sea so far away from land. What do they expect from him now, swimming to shore? Fortunately for King, he did not have to wait long until he could hear the sound of waves splitting. From the distance, several figures came into view, revealing to be the ship girls which had engaged the enemy fleet before King's support.

King raised his drenched head, wiping his face with an equally drenched hand. "Kept you waiting huh?" he paused. "Wait, that's wrong, fuck…"

The girls could only stare as he talked to himself in English.

"So, are you girls going to stand…er… float there or do I have to swim all the way back?" he asked in perfect Japanese.

* * *

The situation back at the base, now that things were over, had returned to its previous state. The panic had subsided, scientists and mechanics were now back doing their job once again, several additional dispatch were sent to make further confirmation that Abyss-al presence near the base were cleared and gone. King called for some of his men from Red Arrow's base in Osaka to help with increasing the base's security, albeit temporarily. The commander, commander Himejima, was in a sudden meeting the higher brass, leaving only rear admiral Yoshikawa and vice admiral Tanaka as the officer in charge of the base's situation while he was on the meeting.

Doctor Shinjo and his team was busy tending the injured ship girls and that was where King was currently in right now. Marty was here too, he's here as one of the men that King called to help the Japs. But Marty and two other were ordered to stay with King as per Tae's order, even King couldn't say not to that. He's in the repair floor, just one floor below the factory upstairs. And was currently getting himself treated even though he's not a ship girl.

"Grr…" he growled at the painful sensation of alcohol as it rubbed against his wounded arm. Currently, Marty was applying treatment as soft as he could. "Okay, that's enough, I'll do it myself later." The balaclava wearing man wisely stepped away. King was sitting on a small stool and behind him, the girls who were present during the battle earlier were getting themselves treated by doctor Shinjo and his team of scientists.

Not long later, after a few minutes of rest on the stool, doctor Shinjo walked over to King and his men. "You've impressed me once again young man. Not only did you introduced that magnificent bit of technology to us, but you've also proved yourself efficient in battle. Tell me, were you under the influence of your…ADAM implant?"

King nodded without hesitation. "Yup. I was, but not all the time. Only when I needed to pull drastic move such as when I pulled that little parachute explosion trick."

On his walking board, the doctor began to scribble some notes. "Fascinating, fascinating. If I may ask, in what way do the implants affect you?"

King was starting to get a little bit wary here, but it couldn't hurt to share a little bit. "ADAM implants affect each of its hosts in different ways. When I used it, I felt more… excitement, wild, thrilled, even. It's like an instant super drug, if you would say. With all the additional boost in perception, time especially, strength, speed, durability and brain functionality, I'm the same equivalent to an entire group of specially trained taskforce combined in terms of effectiveness."

"Hm… most interesting, interesting." The doctor stopped halfway in scribbling. "You say that these implants affects people, how about, _androids_?"

"That… I cannot say." The doctor frowned at his answer. "What? Really, I can't say because I don't know. I've just known that my implants could be used on androids recently, so you can't blame me for not knowing."

"Hmm… I see." Still, that did not satisfy the doctor's willful mind. "Do you mind if I conduct further experiments on your implants, Mister Valentine?"

"I'm sorry sensei, but that's a straight no from me." King answered immediately without missing single beat. "Just like the girls behind me, they're as precious as them. I can't share Red Arrow's secret, even though we will be a part of the same taskforce in the future." He said with a tone that left no more room for reasoning.

The doctor eventually understood. "Very well then, but it is still interesting to know what a simple enhancement implant could do something like that… imagine what an entire army could do with it…" the doctor snapped himself out from his daydream. "Anyhow, if you don't mind, could you show me the effect of the implant?"

"You mean when we are using it?"

"Yes, please."

"Meh." King shrugged. He stood from his chair and ordered Marty to give him his Glock. King turned to one of his men who was standing on the right and asked him to back away a few meters with ADAM implant turned on. "As I've said before sensei, ADAM implants could enhance a person's physical ability, lifting their human limitation." Without warning or whatsoever, he fired four shots, causing several people, including the ship girls, to scream at the sound of gun fire.

But doctor Shinjo was amazed at what he had just saw. The soldier who was shot used his knife to deflect all four bullets away, resulting him with no damage and only with a bent knife. King returned Marty his gun back, before crossing his arms. "Of course, you can't automatically do that, we have training for that."

"Oh! Brilliant, brilliant!" well as long as he's happy…

"Shinjo-sensei! What happened, we heard gunfire!" Nagato, he recognized her as she was the flagship in charge of the fleet from earlier, rushed into the room with escorts from her fellow kanmusu. She looked at King, completely unaffected. "What happened here?"

"Nothing to be worried about. Shinjo-sensei here just wanted to see what my men could do." King answered as nonchalantly as he could. It's not like he was lying. He then sat back on the stool, stretching a little bit. "Is that all sensei? Or do you want to see more of the effect of the implants?"

"The data should be enough, I shall tell you if I ever need more."

King shrugged nonchalantly. It's already night, and he should probably return back to base. But he had yet to inform Tae of the success, but he was doubting on whether that's important or not. He turned his head to the tall ship girl, Nagato. "Hey, good work out there. Those shots were killer."

Nagato nodded in return. "The same can be said to you, but I didn't know that they'd sent the head of the private militia himself to deal with the situation."

"Most of my men were sent to rebuild that destroyed Abyss headquarters to be used as our future base of operations, so I had to be a little bit initiative." He said with a dull tone, almost bored. "Hope that you girls didn't suffer that much damage, god knows what could've happened to a normal human if they were in your shoes."

Nagato, still not believing that she was in a regular chat with the head of the world's most powerful private militia organization, shook her head. "Most of us were damaged badly, especially the destroyer children. The rest of us are waiting for our turn to get repaired, Akashi's having a hard time currently with the other scientists."

"I can only imagine…" at the same timing, his communications device buzzed. "Wassup Tae?" his sudden change in language and speech confused the girls present.

" _King, how goes the situation over at Yokosuka?"_

"All's well now, due to my help and the Japanese's cooperation. I must say, this whole merging idea might turn out to be a good idea." King said.

" _Well that's good news King, but that's not the only good news that'll be in this conversation of ours."_ Tae said with a light tone.

"Okay, shoot it at me."

"Our construction schedule is tight, but we were able to reduce the deadline to only two weeks instead of three. Oh, and we received extra funds from our boys who're in Dubai acting as hired muscle. Their expected time of arrival back to our base at Osaka is approximately at six tomorrow, you might want to be here to hear the debriefing yourself."

"Sweet!" King exclaimed. In the middle of his happy state, he saw a familiar figure coming in from the corner of his eyes. "Talk to you later Tae." And the communications were cut.

"Mister King, thought I'd meet you at the helipad, but you're here. Good." Rear admiral Yoshikawa was with vice admiral Tanaka, suddenly entering conversation.

"Admiral!" the ship girls present saluted their XOs orderly, standing as straight as chopsticks.

"At ease girls, you've just gone back from battle, there's no need to tire your bodies further." Admiral Yoshikawa said before refocusing attention to King. "Mister King, good work on intercepting those Abyss-al fleets and helping the girls, we would like to thank you personally for that."

"Hey don't thank me just yet." King said with a dull look. "Think of it as proof of guarantee, knowing that you'll have a competent group of people working together with you on taking out those freaks. Ah by the way, I have good news for you."

"Oh?"

"The base construction's deadline was reduced to only two weeks, but not to worry, we'll have every needed facility. Minus ship girl's exclusive ones, of course." King revealed with a smile.

"That is indeed good news, commander Himejima must hear of this later. But for now, please relax, you've done enough for the day." Both admiral Yoshikawa and vice admiral Tanaka bowed in gratitude.

King returned their gesture with a two fingered salute of his own. "Just consider this as me doing my part." He said without any real meaning into it. "Oh and I guess we'll head back to Osaka immediately. It's getting pretty late and my second in command's going to need my help managing my company."

He said his goodbyes to both XOs before leaving for Osaka in his Osprey. Inside the Osprey, King was telling his men about what had happened during today's earlier emergency situation.

"Two fleet worth of Abyss freaks came in and suddenly attacked the base, the Japs sent in the ship girls who were ready for battle but none of them were able to withstand that much attack, from two fleets moreover."

"Then what did you do King?" one of his men asked.

"I asked for a couple of things, two RPGs five kilo worth of C-4, a parachute and a boat."

"Then?!" one of them was a little bit too excited in listening in.

"Just. Cause."

All of them 'oooh'd' at hearing his answer. One of them even cheered. "That's why you're the king, King!"

"Heh, I know Jeff… I know…" he looked out the window of the aircraft, the black night sky coming to his view. The Japanese government had minimized the usage of electricity on certain areas in Japan, Osaka included, which could explain why Japan was looking a little bit dark. This was done of course to prevent any attempt of attack by the Abyss, King could understand that. After a three hour ride, King arrived back at Red Arrow's territory in Osaka, and his Osprey landed on the helipad.

Upon exiting, as expected, Tae was there to greet him along with his company of men. He dismissed the guys who were in the plane with him, pilot excluded, and head towards the makeshift base with Tae and the company of men he had with him.

"So the Abyss dared to attack a naval headquarter just like that?" on the way, Tae could not help but express how ridiculous today's event had been. "If they dared to attack one of the Jap's naval HQ just like that, then we might have to tighten our defenses… but of course, that is not possible with the few number of men we have here."

"But won't the boys we sent to Dubai be returning tomorrow?"

"They'll help, but it'll make no difference." Tae mumbled bitterly. "The last thing we need is for things to go the way things did two years ago…"

"Hey, don't say that, it's bad omen."

"Sorry." Tae apologized quietly. "In any case, it's glad to know that you're safe King. And about our construction, the team in charge of extracting what's left of any scavengeable Abyss-al sample reported in while you were away."

"Oh." King said with interest. "Anything particular that I should know about?"

"Well… eighty percent of what they brought back was contaminated due to the sinking, that's including every biochemical sample we've got. But we did discover some interesting tools that the Abyss might have been using. I've sent the details to your mail, go and check 'em."

"A'ight."


	4. An unexpected guest

Midnight, exactly 0000 hours and King hadn't allowed himself to sleep. Not yet, and probably not going to. The one eyed CEO refrained himself from yawning, but failing miserably trying to do so. He reached out to grab his coffee, being careful so that he won't spill it on the important paperwork he was currently checking… like last time. He was about to take a sip when suddenly-

"King! Come quick, we received a message from the boys in Dubai! They said it's important!"

Looking at the doorway, one of his gas mask wearing men was peering through the side, though King couldn't see his face, King was pretty sure that he was agitated. King placed the mug back on the table, immediately following the mercenary. He took him to the lobby of the building, where a bunch of other men were gathered at, Tae's also there and it seemed that he connected the message to the large TV screen for everyone else to see.

"King, good you're here." Tae said as soon as King arrived. "The squad leader of the group that's in Dubai needs to speak with you, I've connected the feed to the TV, we should be able to see him live via monitor." Tae turned his focus to the TV screen, and he spoke, "Crane, can you read me?"

The TV's screen buzzed into static, before regulating into that of an interior of the Osprey that Red Arrow militia owned. Taps, almost like footsteps, could be hear gradually getting louder and a figure walked over revealing a tall man dressed in Red Arrow's standard issue ACU-1, a lighter armored and combat ready attire compared to the heavy duty battle dress ACU-6 that King wore during the skirmish with the Japs and Abyss headquarter. He was wearing a Red Arrow standard issue gas mask over his balaclava, shadowing his face and preventing anyone from seeing it.

" _I hear you loud and clear Wizard, this is squad leader Crane reporting."_ The man said in a thick and distinguishable Russian accent. _"King, you might like or not like what I've brought from Dubai for you."_

"What is it?" one could almost taste the intensity in his voice.

" _Believe it or not, it's one of those freaks who destroyed our base."_ Gasps and other expression of surprise were dropped amongst the men, even Tae and King himself did not expect an answer like that. _"I can't say for sure whether it's one of the freaks who attacked us, but it definitely looks like it."_

"Show it to me" King said, his voice surprisingly quiet and still.

The mercenary on the screen, Crane, went off camera for a moment and sounds of dragging could be heard gradually coming closer and closer. Crane brought with him a shorter person, just about a foot shorter; head covered in a black plastic bag and seemed to be trying her best on trying to escape from Crane's strong grip. Why 'her'? Let's just say that there were _two_ distinguishable _clues_ to identify the person as a 'she'. Muffled cuss threatened to escape, but it seemed that Crane had her mouth sealed up good. Crane harshly forced the subject on her knees, forcing her to kneel on the cold steel floor of the aircraft's cabin, before fixing an even stronger grip on her shoulders, preventing her from making any rebelling movements or action. After he managed to forcefully make her stop struggling, he harshly ripped the bag off from her face, revealing a pale white skin and a pair of neon red eyes. No exaggeration on the neon part, her eyes were literally glowing, making the dim interior of the Osprey shine in a red color. She has tape covering her mouth, preventing her from speaking, but she was no longer resisting.

King realized that Tae was staring at the screen intently. Even though his partial blindness obstructed a clear view of what was going on, King was sure that Tae figured out. He could hear the sound of Tae's knuckle popping loudly, echoing as if it was his way of saying revenge.

The crowd in the base erupted into a chatting bunch, having private convo amongst each other concerning the situation at hand. King could hear mutterings like 'is that really those freaks' and 'kill the bitch, make her suffer'. He too couldn't help balling his palms into a pair of solid fists, not when the face of their attacker was literally inches away from them, though in a screen. He could give the order for Crane to kill her right there and then, or better yet, torture her. But King stopped himself halfway, cutting the thoughts away in a matter of seconds.

Everyone was then silent, almost as if they were waiting for him to give Crane the order to execute the Abyss right where she was.

King opened his mouth slowly, and his words came out. "Bring her here, she's under our custody." The look in his lone one eye hardened. "Not as a VIP, but a prisoner."

Everyone still kept their silence, the only notable sound happening in the room being Tae who immediately stormed out of the room. King did not see the leaving form of his friend, he instead focused on Crane who was awaiting further instructions from him. "Crane, bring her here and get back as fast as you can. You and your boys will be debriefed by me personally. What's your ETA here?"

" _If there is no interference on the way back home, five hours, we'll arrive back at exactly six."_ Crane answered.

"Good." He raised his voice. "Everyone, dismiss and get back to work!"

Everyone began scrambling, returning to their posts. King, being the only one still standing right where he was from the start, sighed loudly to himself. He knew that Tae wouldn't like his answer, but hopefully, that stubborn friend of his would like his reason for his choice. The TV screen was shut off seconds after King dismissed everyone, letting the one eyed mercenary see his own dim reflection upon the black screen. He just knew what was going to happen after this…

And he was right.

* * *

"You made the wrong choice King! You should've asked Crane to **kill** her!"

"See it like this Tae, if we bring her here, we'll get intel from her and probably even about the ones responsible for the attack two years ago!"

"There's no need for that! It's clear that… that… _thing_ was one of the freaks that belonged to the group that attacked us! You could see it in its eyes, the way it recognized you…"

King's office, with the way it was inside, was currently a strictly no entry zone. The mercenaries of Red Arrow would rather _die_ than to get caught up in the middle of a heated argument between King and Tae. Their bickering noise could be heard all the way outside, but those who were outside wisely ignored what they were hearing and simply went along with their duty. In the room, King was sitting on his chair while Tae was facing towards the window. It had been two hours ever since the live feed from Crane and his team, and he still could not get his stubborn second-in-command to see reasons. Every of their argument will always be like this, unless there were some rare cases where King was the one who'd lose his cool.

"Then what should I do Tae?" King asked, tired of it. "You think killing that Abyss would solve things? No. We want revenge Tae, and not let's make it into something as small as this." King told in a tone that one would call cold. "Our revenge will be big, it won't only affect the Abyss that we saw, it'll affect all of them. We'll see them suffer, payment for blood in blood. That's what you told me, right? If killing that Abyss counts as delivering our revenge, then I'm going to do everything in my power to stop you from killing her."

An uncomfortable pause of silence filled the room, but it was then broken by a sigh that came from Tae.

"I… I'm sorry King, I just… haah." The fedora wearing man sighed in exasperation of not knowing what to say. "They need to pay. We built that place, we work with the people that died there and they took them away from us." He balled his palms into fists. "They must pay."

"Don't worry, they will. But let's do it smart. Once Crane and his team returns here, I'll do the questioning myself." King reassured the fedora wearing man as best as he could.

"I want to see it."

"…Sure." King shrugged. He stood from his chair, heading towards the door. "I'm gonna take a quick sleep, wake me up via coms if the boys are back."

Tae's silence was his answer.

On the way to his quarters, King could not resist the urge to click his tongue. This was not a good idea when looked at another way, having an Abyss-al ship girl here was dangerous, but the fact that the ship girl who was with Crane did not attack or fight back suggested that she was not capable of fighting, this somehow reassured him, though only slightly. The bigger problem was keeping here. Letting her go or killing her would be a waste of information and sample, the Abyss-al girl could know a thing or two about the reason behind the attack and it would only be unwise to ignore that possibility. The bad thing about it would be the Japanese finding out that Red Arrow had been keeping a potential 'research material' from them. King did not want the Japs to find out about them going to have an Abyss-al ship girl under their custody, and that could be taken in the wrong way, or worse, a sign of betrayal. He'd experienced enough betrayal in his life, so he wasn't going to go with that outcome.

With most of his early years being spent as an expendable child soldier, betrayal's like the ending of a movie. It'll eventually happen.

Regardless, the best course of action right now was to make sure that he'll get at least some answer from the Abyss-al ship girl, make sure that the Japs won't have a clue of her being and keeping that a secret until he could come up with a good reason as to why he had an Abyss-al ship girl with him. But if they find out, then, balls. Tae better have a good reason if that happen. If not, then he'll worry about it later. Right now, all he wanted was to catch some Z's and rest his tired body, but a few hours of nap won't do much for him, which sucked so hard. After a minute of walk in the hallway, the one eyed mercenary leader finally reached his room. His room was located on the eastern side of the building, being fashioned out of an office, it was not much. He opened the door and entered before closing it again. He slumped down on his cot, not feeling the soft rebound of mattress. The dull color of the room provides no mood or whatsoever inside, and King did not have the time to do redecoration for just a room. With eyes closed and his face facing upwards to the ceiling, he finally drifted into sleep.

* * *

It's 0600, and the team from Dubai had just returned in time. But King was already on the helipad first, accompanied with Tae and some other men. The Osprey descended, but the people standing on the helipad did little to cover from the wind made by the rotors. After a perfectly executed landing by the Osprey's pilot, the ramp of the aircraft opened and the first thing King saw was the blindfolded and handcuffed form of the Abyss-al girl emerging with behind restraining her.

"Walk." Crane pushed the Abyss-al, his voice cold to match his unreadable expression hidden underneath the gas mask he was wearing. The Abyss-al did not restrain and she immediately did as she was asked to do. Crane's men behind him made sure that the Abyss-al wouldn't make any sudden movement, and even if she did, they will be ready for it. The Abyss-al walked down the platform and Crane was directing her towards King.

With each step that the Abyss-al made, King also made his. Crane then halted the captive by gripping hard on her shoulder. King, now standing in front of the Abyss-al, silently ordered Crane to open the blindfold that was covering her eyes. King did not flinch when he was greeted with those hateful, blazing scarlet eyes. If those eyes could kill, then he would already be dead. With the stare she was giving him and cold morning air combined, King made sudden death the most of his worry. Who knew what she could do right here and then, she may just be playing captive and could escape any moment from now. King had four snipers posted on the roof of the base behind him sighted on the girl's head, just to be sure. But even with four snipers and the rest of his men present here, King's still not sure on what this particular Abyss-al could do.

King openly instructed Crane to kneel the prisoner by kicking down the back of her knee. The long haired Abyss-al grunted, putting a lot of effort on not screaming, when Crane did kick her to her knees. She was forced to look up at the one eyed man, as if he was some sort of God that she had to beg for mercy. She expected for him to kick her, hence her bracing. But she was wrong. King crouched down to her level, just a few inches away from her face and he roughly cupped her chin with his rough hands. She retracted her head, but Crane was there to prevent her. King moved her head by her chin sideways, as if he was examining a clue like a detective would. He got tired of the silent method and let go of her chin.

He stared deep into her red eyes. "Do you know me?" he asked. He frowned from not receiving any answer from her. _"Watashi o shitte imasu ka?"_ Still no answer and it's beginning to tick him off. King stood back up, motioning for two Crane and his men to bring her to the interrogation room. He and Tae followed Crane and his men as they escorted the Abyss-al to the interrogation room. Originally, this place—being a government officer—did not have facilities such as an interrogation room, so they took the initiative to build one. Throughout the whole walk there, the Abyss-al was blindfolded and now, the subject was tied to a chair with her hands and feet bound. King was in the room with her, Tae, Crane and the rest of his men were on the other side of the one way mirror.

King stood there in front of the bound Abyss-al subject. He then stepped forward, ripping the blindfold off from her face harshly. She glared at him, but his own one eyed glare caused hers to fade away.

"I'll ask you again. Do you know me?" he asked in English instead of Japanese.

The Abyss-al's lips parted, and words came out from it. "I… do." Her voice was normal, just like a normal person's, something that King did not expect.

"You're one of them who attacked the base in the Pacific." It was not a question.

"…" the Abyss-al girl did not say anything, she averted her eyes away from King's intimidating form. She felt him approach her, leaning over the table. She still refused to look at him, but his hand forced her to. She found herself staring into his single eye once again for the most time.

"What's your name?" King asked, not knowing that he was gripping her chin too hard.

The Abyss-al responded with difficulty. "R—Ru…"

"Ru…" King repeated her name, before letting go of her chin. He backed away slightly, crossing his arms but not breaking the line of sight he had on her. "I'm going to be really simple Ru. Who ordered the attack two years ago on the off-shore platform two years ago somewhere in the Pacific?"

Ru looked down. "…The admiral… he ordered the attack…"

King unknowingly clenched his fists too hard. "Who is your admiral?"

Ru opened her mouth, but no words came out. She tried again, finally finding her voice. "He is the leader of our cause, he is without name." Ru looked into his eyes, her gaze red and empty. "He gives us orders, and we follow them. We are not allowed to question why, just… follow…" her speech was more broken.

King was still unsatisfied with her answer, he couldn't really tell whether Ru was lying or not. But honestly, he was kind of expecting Ru's answer. "…Then answer me this: what were you doing in Dubai?" He had not hear anything from Crane, but he will be using Ru to answer what he wanted to know first and he will ask Crane his details later during the debriefing.

"Supply retrieval…" Ru answered dully, her tone getting deader. "I was with a fleet and we were tasked to get supplies from that place through our land contacts. Mission objective was supposed to retrieve the supplies and leave as soon as possible, but your men stumbled upon us recovering our supply drops. My comrades managed to escape, but I was left behind." She glared, though a slight one. "And you know the rest."

"You walked on land instead of getting them on a port or somewhere?" He saw her nod. "So you girls are more interesting than I thought you'd be…" he mused to himself for a few moments. "More importantly, start tellin' me everything you know about your organization or whatever the hell it is."

Ru took a deep breath. She was aware of the many signatures behind that mirror right opposite of her and she was also aware of the CCTV cameras on the corner of the room. Though she was sure that this man will not stand a chance against her, she won't stand a chance against the lot of them.

"We are the Abyssal, an organization that has been labeled as terrorists by all nation's government. I am Ru-class Battleship of the Deep Abyss, a part of the Abyssal's Deep Abyss Fleet." Her gaze hardened, not as a form of anger, but as a way of telling King that she did not know anything else. "That is all I know."

"Bullshit." King immediately said, not buying her one bit.

"That is what I know. I was telling the truth, whether you will accept that or not is not my problem." Ru mumbled nervously. She had no strength left in her. The men in Dubai had been holding her for a day and she had not consumed anything ever since then. With her weakened state, escaping from here was impossible.

"...Oh it _will_ be your problem if you won't tell me everything you know." His fist went crashing down to the metallic table's flat surface, causing it to shiver and tremble under the impact of his bare fist. "I'll say it again, tell me everything you know about your organization."

"…"

"So be it." King walked away and towards the one way mirror. He tapped three times on the mirror, telling Tae something. A moment later, the door to the room was opened revealing one of King's men. "That there is a gun. I'm not sure if you're familiar with guns, but I expect you to know, so I'm gonna be straightforward." The masked wearing mercenary handed King a .44 Magnum. "This gun could scramble a person's brain if fired at point blank." He placed the tip of the gun on Ru's forehead, but it did little to her. "I don't know how you are built, but I'm going to assume that you—being a battleship—will be really really tough and even with a .44, you may or may not die."

"So please, speak, if you don't wanna see the result."

Ru gritted her teeth, but she found no courage to look at her captor. She conceded, her shoulders slumping. "Our current headquarters…" but before she could say anything else, her body slumped forward, crashing onto the metal surface of the table. King immediately gripped her arms, shaking her.

"Hey! Hey! Wake up, goddammit, Tae get in here!"

The door to the room was kicked open, Tae and a couple of King's men came barging in.

"Put her into a stretcher! Shit, what the fuck happened!?" Tae rushed a couple of men. "Is this a way for the Abyssal to prevent any intel leak?"

"Could be." King set the unconscious body of Ru on the table while waiting for his men to return with a stretcher. "Hey hurry up!" a while later, two men came rushing in again carrying a stretcher. King and those two men strapped Ru on to the stretcher and she was rushed immediately to the medical ward. Basically speaking, the medical ward used to be another office typed room in the building, but it was filled with facilities that were needed by them. But since this was an Abyss-al King was dealing with, there's no telling whether he could figure out what the hell was going.

"Set her down on the bed, slowly." King instructed his men. He then turned to Tae. "Just… how the hell are we going to do this?"

Tae was silent, signifying that he was in deep thought. After a while though, he spoke. "I'm not sure… there are too many questions that are left unanswered. What was that thing doing in Dubai, who sent her, where is their base… too many questions King, and I don't like having them unanswered. The best conclusion that we could come up with is the fact that since she is technically a computer, this could be her way of shutting herself down in emergency. If this is right then we need to find a way to start her up again."

"Easier said than done… we know nothing about these Abyss-als, much less fixing them." King shook his head. "But it won't hurt to try, I suppose… send some of our IT's to figure out a way to turn Ru back on."

"I will."

* * *

"So recap. Ru, who is an Abyss-al battleship and also one of the people responsible for the attack at our base at the Pacific was at Dubai for supply retrieval with a fleet in which she was also a member of. We know that." Inside King's office, Crane and Tae were standing on their own places deep in their own respective thoughts yet somewhat listening to their boss's talking. "Crane, how is it that you managed to capture Ru?"

"If I could really be honest with you King, it was only through pure coincidence." The Russian's tone was straight and to the point, he got nothing to hide. "Our client, a rich Arab prince, owned a small airfield for his private luxury aircrafts. Near that airfield was an abandoned textile factory that was about to be torn down to be used for his garage." King snorted at hearing Crane's explanation. "We were asked to make sure that no one's using that run down factory as a living place, we highly doubted that would happen but still went to investigate anyway. During our patrol there, we stumbled into them, as in the Abyss. I recognized one of them, the one who's on the med-bay. I was a hundred percent sure that that _сука_ was there when our base was attacked."

One thing was clear, and that's Ru's presence during the attack at the Pacific base two years ago. Crane continued with his report.

"At first contact, I ordered the rest of my team to shoot on sight, but as soon as we fired; they all fled. All except for one. And, you know the rest." The final conclusion was delivered with a finishing sigh from Crane.

"Hmm…" King looked up, staring blankly to the ceiling. It's already morning, but he barely caught some sleep. "So aside from what we've covered, we know nothing else. Well, that leaves 'waking' Ru up our top priority if we want to know more."

"But it will take a very long time King." Tae interjected. "We know nothing about Abyss-al technology, and it will be hard for our guys to work on Ru quick. We might have to turn in to the Japs and tell them if we want to know something…"

"That's a huge no from me." King stubbornly crossed his arms. "We're going have to do this on our own, without the Japs' help. I don't want them knowing that we have an Abyss-al in our custody, it could be seen in the wrong way." King said. "For now, just leave the work to our boys to get something from Ru's current state. Crane, you're dismissed."

As soon as Crane stepped out from the room, Tae spoke. "While waiting for Ru's recovery, I suggest going over to our Japanese partners to discuss future plans. We can't play wait and react all the time, we need to act fast if we're going to slaughter those freaks."

King nodded. "I'll head over to Yokosuka later, I'll still need to discuss a few things with Yoshikawa anyway…"

Tae said nothing in response.

* * *

It's already 0700 and King was back at Yokosuka accompanied by rear admiral Yoshikawa to observe the ship girls' practice again. Hopefully this time, there won't be any surprise 'interruption' by the enemy. As they were observing, they were also discussing a few topics related to the girls as well as the functionality of the newly established task force.

"Dealing with the Abyss-al threat will be hard. Aside from the fact that we know nothing about them, except for how dangerous they are, the girls are not yet ready to face a real attack by the Abyss." Admiral Yoshikawa stated with a flat tone. "You've seen them in action the other day, and they can only do so much. It's a good thing that you're capable of finishing those monsters off…"

King kept silent for a few moment, his eyes quietly observing the girls who were doing their practice on the ocean area in front of the base. "We can't have casualty just yet, not so soon… besides, what happened yesterday could help the girls understand how their enemy fights. But I'd be lying if I told you that we weren't lucky… they didn't expect a lone man armed with two bazookas and a boat full of C-4s to snipe their hinds off one by one."

The two men shared a laugh on the edge of the pier.

"Still, I feel like it will be hell a few weeks from now on. Now, we are merely awaiting construction of the base to finish so that we could operate as a task force permanently. From then on, we will begin our plan of annihilating the Abyss, but for now, all that we can do is give the girls simulated exercises to prepare them for what's to come." The white clad officer said in a sage like manner.

"…Maybe not…"

Admiral Yoshikawa blinked a few times as he turned to face King.

"These girls… they're built using my implants, my technology. That alone gives them potential that no other android or smart drones could ever have." King said. "If it isn't too much for you admiral, I'd like to introduce these girls how to fight."

"Fight…?" the word came out slow, as if the admiral wasn't sure what he heard was right. "You want to teach the girls how to fight in close range against an enemy like the Abyss?" if that was not incredulous enough, then King didn't know what else.

"Yup." The one eyed teen nodded, not hiding the smirk on his face. "Let me tell you a short story admiral. At the age of ten, I was already taught how to shoot a grown man twice my age with a gun." This revelation shocked the admiral. "At thirteen, I had my first kill… or kills since it was technically a convoy full of soldiers. And at fifteen… I was already in charge of my own squad. But before all of that, I was the army's errand boy, going here and there, bringing this and that for my 'seniors' because it is 'legitimately' a part of my 'duty' as child who got taken in by the army."

"Wha…"

"Yes, wha…" King mocked. "Do you know of the civil war that happened in Russia twenty or so years ago?" King asked.

"Yes… but I wasn't a part of the navy just yet, it's broadcasted a lot of time on the news." Admiral Yoshikawa answered.

"I was born in the middle of that war." King's tone was cold, almost as if he's venturing into the cold and unforgiving tundra of the North Pole. "The whole thing was a mess, and I was born right in the middle of it all. You know that the civil war broke out due to the critical political state Russia was in at that time, not that I was ever informed about it, but the next thing you knew, the civil war happened." Speaking alone left a bitter taste in King's mouth. "So Russia was divided into two flags, one is the Federation—those who're going against the other party—which was the Militaristic Revolution Party. I was, unfortunately, found by the latter as a baby. They found me, a baby no older than a couple of months, abandoned in a forest somewhere in Russia. And before I knew it, I was already helping adult soldiers carrying ammo crates and doing reconnaissance missions."

King grew quiet.

"What I'm trying to say is that the potential in a person is endless. Though I might be an exception." He clenched his chest hard. "I was born a soldier, that's the end of it. And I'll die like one. Those girls are soldiers, me and them, we're no different. The only difference—aside from the fact that they are not human—is that they have a country to which they have sworn to protect. If I can fight, why can't they?"

"But you're not a soldier, you're a mercenary." Admiral Yoshikawa stated.

King smiled. "Soldiers… Mercenaries… when you take off their uniforms and badges and leave them with guns and the order to kill, what's the difference?" For a while, King's face looked wistful, almost as if he was regretting something. "So let me lend a hand on helping these girls, what I'll teach them may not be useful out there on sea, but it sure as hell would be useful here on land."

"On land… so I'm not the only one who's crazy enough to think about that." Admiral Yoshikawa chuckled gently. "Yes, that idea struck me too. The girls are, after all, designed to be humans making them convenient to be deployed on land."

King nodded, glad that the admiral understood what he meant. "Yes, that's my point. Arm them with guns and a thing or two on how to use them, then you'll have yourself an unstoppable task force capable of dealing with all land, ocean and air conflicts."

"Training them won't be easy." The admiral said. "I'm sure that at least a few of them would object to the idea, but I'll have to agree with you in having them take weapons training."

"Then there's no problem. You're the admiral, one word from you and they'll follow immediately."

A nod.

"I'll go prepare a few things then, wait for me." King walked away. "Tae, could you send a few of our men from the assault team over here to Yokosuka?" King asked through his radio.

 _"What for King?"_ The fedora wearing man's voice was filled with curiosity.

"I convinced the admiral to let me train the girls in weapons training and I'll need a few of our guys and a lot of guns. Oh, make sure you get Marty too. That bloke's probably drinking somewhere…" King said.

 _"Roger that King."_

King returned to the admiral by the pier, and the admiral was expecting him. "What's wrong?"

The one eyed man shook his head. "Nothing, I just ordered a couple of my men to get here with some guns for the practice. While they're getting here, why don't you ask the girls and see who wants to give my training a try?"

"Hm, I'll do that, it's about time for their practice to end anyway…"

* * *

The ship girls' morning practice was done at the same time King's men touched down at the base's helipad with the Osprey. King ordered his men who had just arrived to start unloading the guns and bringing them to the field. There should be no problem on using the field for weapons training since it's meant to be used for that in the first place. Meanwhile King's men were unloading the guns from the Osprey, King was with admiral Yoshikawa on the field standing in front of a crowd of ship girls who were here because they wanted to take part in weapons training.

As both King and the admiral had expected, not all of them were open to the idea of using human fire arms much less trying to learn on how to use them. Most of the ones present were the bigger ships, meaning anything except Destroyer class, though there were some Destroyers present. King was whistling a tune on his iPod. All that's left was to wait for his boys to get here, so he got nothing but whistling and his iPod to listen to. He noticed the admiral finishing his convo with one of the girls and he immediately took one of his earphones off.

"Just as I told you, not all of them were interested in this idea." Admiral Yoshikawa said as a matter of factly. He scratched his head through the gaps of his cap. "But I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't surprised by how many of the girls who decided to partake in the training." He pulled out a small notepad which King had seen him writing down on ever since the girls gathered here. "Here are the lists of the girls who are here and I'm surprised to see some of the names listed there."

Admiral Yoshikawa handed King the list and King began going through it.

 _DD_ \- Satsuki

 _DD_ \- Murakumo

 _DD_ \- Fubuki

 _DD_ \- Hibiki

 _DD_ \- Wakaba

 _CL_ \- Tenryuu

 _CL_ \- Tatsuta

 _CL_ \- Kiso

 _CL_ \- Kuma

 _CL_ \- Tama

 _CL_ \- Sendai

 _CL_ \- Jintsuu

 _CA_ \- Kako

 _CA_ \- Furutaka

 _CA_ \- Ashigara

 _CA_ \- Maya

 _BB_ \- Nagato

 _BB_ \- Hyuuga

 _BB_ \- Ise

 _BB_ \- Musashi

 _BB_ \- Mutsu

 _BB_ \- Kongou

 _CV_ \- Kaga

 _CV_ \- Akagi

 _CV_ \- Zuikaku

 _CV_ \- Shoukaku

 _SS_ \- I-168 (Imuya)

 _SS_ \- I-19 (Iku)

 _SS_ \- I-58 (Goya)

 _SS_ \- I-401 (Shioi)

 _SS_ \- Maruyu

King himself whistled.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting so much of them, but does it looks like I'm complaining?" He handed the list back to the admiral.

Marty, after helping his fellow mercenaries with the lifting and transport, approached King.

"King, everything's here. We're just waiting for you."

King nodded. "Ah, good job. I want you and the rest to set up targets on the fields, give some distance among them and make sure not to put them so closely to each other." Marty received his orders and left with the other mercenaries on duty. King turned back the admiral. "Yeah, now that the guns are here and the girls are here, there's still one more thing we need to think off. Gun roles. Based on what I deduced, I say that the little ones will have a hard time using rifles much less precision rifles. So that means that they'll have to do with SMGs and other shorter guns. I can't tell the difference between the battleships, light cruisers and heavy cruisers, especially the latter two so I'll just assume that they're capable of taking the same role with heavier rifles like an assault rifle or maybe even a marksman rifle. The carriers… correct me if I'm wrong but I suppose that they have an advantage when it comes to long range fighting?"

"True."

"Then that leaves them with sniper rifles. Finally, submarines…" King's eye trailed over to the small group of submarines on amongst the crowd. "I'll put them on the same batch as the battleships, but still give them lower caliber weapons." King came to his conclusion. "Okay, if you would admiral, please make them line up according to their ship type?"

Admiral Yoshikawa nodded before toughening up his front. "ATTENTIOOON!" immediately, the jumbled, messy and disorganized crowd scurried to form a line based on their ship types. The battleships were lined up on the most left side of the group, next comes the heavy cruisers, light cruisers, aircraft carriers, destroyers and finally submarines. Everything went silent and no word came from the group of now orderly ship girls. The admiral paused before speaking. "We are going to begin human firearms weapons training, please pay attention to what King-san says."

King muttered a small thank you to the admiral before taking over. He looked at the scenery and could not help but think of his own men. After all, all Red Arrow operatives' training drills have always been conducted by him being the hard-assed sergeant.

"Alright, good morning lasses I'm King and I'm gonna be the one teaching you girls how to shoot guns, not your ship guns, but the guns we humans use. Now you might be thinkin', 'what's the whole goddamned point of all of this when we're already assigned our own ship guns?'. Well, to tell you simply, it's because you girls will make the best goddamn infantry unit that no other army in the whole wide world have. I know that some of you were curious why we're asking you to give this a shot, but trust me, this is as necessary as putting Type III shells on those Abyss-al freaks." King coughed, clearing his throat. "You'll learn three things in this training. First: how to reload a gun. Second: how to fire a gun and third: how not to die out there should you be deployed on land." He smirked. "Yes, you guessed it right, we're considering on deploying you on land should the situation needs it. Now don't complain." He got a few glares from that one, but that just made his smirk wider. "Now before we begin, any questions?"

Some of the girls raised their hands.

"Yeah, we'll start with you… eh… what's your name?"

"F—Fubuki, sir…" the plain looking girl said timidly.

"Yea, Fubuki."

"U—Um… a—are you the one who helped with the situation the other day?" she asked.

"Yes, what of it?"

"N—Nothing sir, just… confirmation…" she looked away, embarrassed.

"Weird…" King muttered lowly only for him to hear. "Okay, next you, the girl with the eye patch like mine, cool one, by the way."

"Thanks, and it's Tenryuu-sama!" The eye patch wearing ship girl who had a pair of head dealies floating right on the side of her head gave King a smirk that could rival his own. "So what are those guys doing back there?" Tenryuu pointed loosely to King's men who were halfway done with setting up the targets for the practice.

"Oh, they're setting up targets for the practice."

"So we're going to shoot those, sweet."

"Yeah, we'll be shooting the guys who're setting those targets up if they don't hurry the fuck up!" over in the distance, King could see the number of targets raised increasing rapidly. "Better." He smiled. "Okay, next iiiiiiiss… you the one with the white hair."

A pair of golden hazel eyes glared at him, as well as the rising of crossed arms. "The name's Murakumo." Her glare deepened when she saw King shrug. "What's the real point of this whole thing? Ship girls using human weapons, that's ridiculous." She said in an oh so haughty manner.

King didn't want to get outdone by the arrogant girl. "Eh, hello, didn't you realize what you've just said? You're a 'ship girl' not a 'ship'. You're given a human body for god's sake and not using them to the fullest is like opening a bottle of coke without a cap opener. Next, you, the one with the glasses."

Musashi straightened herself up at receiving attention. "This Musashi is not familiar with how ground combat works, do you expect us to participate in future ground assignments, should there be a plan for them?" her voice came out loud and clear.

"Yeah, we do. I also expect you girls to learn on how to use the guns quickly since you girls literally have computer for brains. And as for future assignments… I don't think that we'll be giving you girls any land assignments anytime soon, not until we deem you ready." He looked at the admiral. "What do you think, admiral Yoshikawa, any plans?"

"Not at the moment, and hopefully won't be anytime soon. The only land based threats that we should worry about is from terrorists other than the Abyss-al or the Abyss-al themselves if they could deploy land troops to attack the mainland."

"Now that you heard that, let's move on, next is you, the one in the miko uniform."

Kongou beamed at being noticed. "Hey~ is your name really King? And I'm Kongou, by the way!"

"No, next."

"HEY~! Looking away from me is a no-no, Mister King~!"

King's irritation increased, but he turned to the admiral for answers. "Is she this annoying?"

The admiral could only spare him a pitying look.

King sighed. "No, my name's not really King, 'King' is what my men and friends call me."

"Eh~ why is it?"

King was trying his best not to make himself look scary in front of the girls, and he's hanging by a thread. "It's because I formed my private army alone into what it is today," his voice got low. "not until that **goddamned incident two years ago…"**

At this point, Kongou's regretting that she asked such question. "E—Eh, uh…" she looked around, but no one was willing to help her get out from this situation she had brought herself into. "Kaga, help me!"

The iron faced and stoic carrier sighed tiredly. "This is why you are the noisiest battleship in the fleet, Kongou." Kaga raised her hand. "Sir, if it would not be rude to ask, how will we exactly conduct today's exercise? And I am Kaga, aircraft carrier Kaga of the first carrier division."

King, now snapped from his inner state of reminiscing, turned his attention to Kaga to answer her question. "As I've said before, you girls will be given a gun of your own to shoot. From there, me and my men, and admiral Yoshikawa, will evaluate and see how quick you girls could learn to use them. If we still have time for the day, then we'll go to the more complicated exercises like how to disassemble and assemble—wait, you okay there Kaga?"

Said aircraft carrier was doing exactly what King did a while ago. "Disassembled… disassembled… **disassembled…"**

Fortunately for King, someone was there to replace Kaga. "Ahaha… you have to excuse her sir, Kaga-senpai is not in good terms with that particular word… ahaha…" A girl dressed in a similar manner as Kaga stepped forward, her hair white as snow and a hachimaki is present tied around her forehead.

"Just leave her be, Shoukaku-nee." Oh boy, King could already smell the tsundere-ness from the voice alone. "That yakitori machine probably got like that because of how hot her broilers are, the heat probably got to her head causing her to get like that."

"You 5thCarDiv are getting cocky… or should I say, _turkey_?" Kaga had immediately went 180 on her persona, standing face to face with the twin tailed girl.

"Wha-!? Don't get conceited just because your planes performed better than mine the other day, Kaga-san! I'll show you…"

"Hmph, so you admitted that I am indeed better than you." Kaga retorted in her sass like manner.

"Grr…!" of course, it only aggravated the other girl much more.

Shoukaku meddled herself in between the two kouhai and senpai, seeing that situation was about to get out of hand. "N—Now, stand down Zuikaku, you should not act like such to our senpais. And Kaga-senpai, if you would please forgive Zuikaku for her rudeness…" but it did her no good. The poor girl was caught up in the middle of two cats who were ready for a fight and she could not do anything about it. "A—Akagi-senpai, don't just stand there, please help me!"

A few feet from them was another girl, dressed in the similar manner as the three carriers, but more similar to Kaga's fashion. Unlike the three, she seemed more easy-going. "My apologies Shoukaku, it seems that I was enjoying their interaction a little bit too much." King saw the newcomer carrier flashing the three girls what he thought to be a kind smile. "Kaga-san, Zuikaku-san, if you would please stop bickering in front of one of our new commanders, it would do no good to us carriers to display such behavior."

King was more surprised at the fact that she recognized him as one of her superiors instead of how well she dealt with the situation. Because as soon as Akagi spoke, Kaga lets go of Zuikaku who immediately backed off. It looks like the hierarchy amongst the ship girls was absolute.

"If you say so, Akagi-san." Kaga said politely to the smiling carrier.

"Thank you, Kaga-san."

Zuikaku pouted while crossing her arms at the same time. "Why should we listen to what that guy says, he's not even a registered officer of the navy!"

"Zuikaku!" the white haired older sister reprimanded in a scolding tone. She turned to King, bowing deeply in genuine apology. "Please forgive her, King-dono!"

"Nah, it's fine, what she said is true." King shook off Shoukaku's apologies with a nod of his head. "I'm not a registered officer in this naval base, and I won't have that much authority over you girls. Admiral Yoshikawa and the rest of the admirals will be the ones doing most of the commanding, but that doesn't mean that I won't have any privilege to give you girls an order. I'll be joining you girls in battle, should there ever be the need for me to join."

"Joining us in battle…" this time, it was Nagato who spoke. She grew interested in the conversation held by King and the carriers. "Considering what you did the other day, that is not impossible."

"Just to let you know, the word 'impossible' is not in my books. I try to make things possible. And if I can't make them possible, I won't even bother trying to do it in the first place." King elaborated briefly to the girls.

"Uh… isn't that just being lazy, sir?" Nagato questioned with a tilt of her head.

"…Shut up."

King observed to the far distance, seeing that all of the shooting targets he asked his men to set up were all rose and ready to shoot. "Alright, everyone return to your lines we'll begin the training now. First, help me distribute the guns…"

The girls began helping King and the other men distribute the guns amongst themselves. The guns that they will be using came from Red Arrow private militia's personal armory, so they'll have to be returned. King did the math, and the first ones to receive their guns were the destroyer girls; he gave all five of them P90's for no particular reason. Next are the battleships along with the light cruisers and heavy cruisers. These three classes received a variety of assault rifles, he handed a couple of AK's, M4's and FAL's to the girls for them to choose and it seemed that most of them chose the AK's. One particular destroyer looked pretty upset that she couldn't get an AK, why, he didn't know. The submarines were given the same choice, but they're a little bit slow on learning.

"Hey King-san!" one of the swimsuit clad submarines called out to him. Unlike the others, she stood out the most due to the sheer cheerfulness of her voice. "Iku and the rest need help reloading the magazines into the guns, nano!" her twin tails whipped to the side when she turned her head at his direction.

"Wait a sec!" King shouted over from the destroyers line, where he was helping some of them with the P90's unique feed system. "I should'a given you girls an MP5 or somethin'…" he walked over to the submarines, ready to help them. "Alright, alright, lemm'e show you girls how." He grabbed Iku's M4 from her hand gently. "Alright, see this little button over here?" he was referring to the magazine lock. "Hold this and pull the magazine downwards and when you' done that, punch another magazine in there. Like that." The magazine clicked into place. "See, easy right?"

"B—But sir…" King was drawn in by a smaller and much softer voice. "This gun is too big for me…" One of the submarine girls complained with a disappointed look on her face. Maruyu was more disappointed in herself for being small rather than the gun being too big for her. She was having a hard time carrying the M4, much less using it.

King had to agree. She was short and small, he could mistook her for a fifth grader and no one could blame him! Just what were the devs thinking when they built these girls? "Fucking lolicons…"

"What sir?"

"Nothing." King dismissed abruptly. "Yeah, it'll be hard for you to use that. Here let me switch that with something smaller." King searched the ammo crate for a suitable substitute for Maruyu. And he found just the right gun. "Aha, here it is, a P90." He handed the short submarine girl the P90, taking the M4 from her and returning it to the crate. "It's not an assault rifle like the ones that other subs have but at least it's shorter for you. This gun's different than the rest of the guns that the subs have, here lemme show you how to reload this."

Down range, the targets erected were your normal target practice metal plate targets shaped like a human's silhouette. There were about fifty of them, all arranged according to the ranges King specifically gave his men. Once the girls were comfortable with their guns, King took them down range. He was sporting an AK of his own, why an AK, no reason for that.

"Alright, let's start with the destroyers line up beside me! Then we'll continue with the subs, light cruisers, heavy cruisers and last are carriers!" he shouted loud enough for the crowd to hear. The line of destroyers took their spot beside him, forming a nice horizontal line. King was not holding P90 but he won't be joining the shooting, so there's no need for him to use one. "Alright, let's do the basics. Let's see how good your accuracy is. These guns fire about 900 rounds per minute so expect some crazy rate of fire."

And they began firing.

"Wh—Whoa…" Satsuki muttered in surprise, not due to recoil, but due to the vibration she felt. "This gun's crazy fast…" she fired a few more shots, pulling the trigger softly one at a time. She hit one of the targets three meters away from her position on the chest area. She grinned. "I like this already!"

Murakumo hadn't fire hers yet, she was still aiming. The sights were small, but there shouldn't be any problem with that. Her finger hovers just a few millimeters away from the trigger, then she pushed down softly on the trigger. The bullets she fired impacted on one of the targets, hitting it. "Hm… not bad." Compared to her ship gun, there was no recoil at all when using this thing.

Hibiki was moving from one target to another, shooting in burst fire, she skillfully shot the targets starting from the nearest and to the farthest as far as the range could take her. She pushed the trigger, but nothing came out. She stared blankly at the empty clip. "I'm out."

"Here, reload." King handed her another fresh clip fresh from the crate.

"Cпасибо."

"Добро пожаловать, товарищ."

Hibiki was stunned. But a palm to her head stopped her from being stunned any longer.

"Continue shooting, the others are waiting for their turns." King let go of his hand from the destroyer's head, walking off to observe the other girls who were shooting.

"…Хорошо!"

"Kyaa!" Fubuki panicked when she pulled the trigger. She was planning on firing one at a time, but it seemed that more than one bullet just came out.

After a while, it's the battleships' turn to fire their guns. Since all of them were using assault rifles, King could join in, but since he was lazy at the moment, and the song he was currently listening to was getting to a good part, he'll let them do it on their own. Nagato was sharp, he expected, but so are the rest of the battleships present.

"Hooh… this gun is good, right Hyuuga?" Ise asked her ship sister with a beaming smile.

Hyuuga, being the calmer one out of the two, simply nodded. "Indeed it is, Ise."

"Still, they're nothing when compared to our ship guns though…" Mutsu said from the side, inspecting the sides of her M4. "It's cool looking I'll give it that…"

"Hey Musashi~! Let's see who could shoot the best, yeah?" Kongou raised her AK and brought the sights closer to her eyes. Her challenge was who could shoot better and whose accuracy was deadlier. She knew that when comparing their naval guns, Musashi would definitely have the upper hand. But since this was a human firearm firing practice, there could be no worry for her.

"Hmph." The glasses wearing battleship responded. "This Musashi accepts! Let us begin, battleship Kongou!"

"Okay~! On three. One, two, three! BURNING LOVE!"

So much daka were fired by those two.

"Oh boy, oh boy, it's Maya-sama's turn to try these out!" Maya was excited when she hopped down the range. She cocked the gun's mechanism back and fires. She hit one of the targets further away, even exceeding that of a normal assault rifle's range capability. "Oh! That's a good shot right there!"

"Ara, ara, Tenryuu-chan, you're in good mood aren't you?" Tatsuta was sporting her trademarked smile as she observed Tenryuu who was firing her M4, hitting targets to targets.

"Hell yeah I am! Never thought that firing these things were that exciting!" the boisterous light cruiser said.

"Not bad at all, I wish our ship guns could fire as fast as these guns." Sendai mused out aloud for everyone to hear.

"That'd be cool, kuma!" Kuma agreed. "The abyss-al won't stand a chance against us!"

King was observing the girls with keen eyes and great interest. As far as behavior goes, these girls could blend in easily with normal teenagers but still… do the devs really have to make them so darn good looking? He'll be perfectly honest here. As a man himself, he could easily say that these girls would put most existing world-wide celebrities to shame by simply breathing. Especially the older looking ones…

"Hey King-san, what about us carriers?" he found Zuikaku, if he remembered correctly, approaching him with the rest of the carriers present. She looked at King accusingly, her eyes squinting giving King a hint of her dislike towards him.

"You girls are special, come with me." he motioned for the carriers to follow him. He lead the carrier girls, fiddled with one of the crates and opening it. "Here, grab one of each."

"What are these, sir?" Kaga asked, not familiar with the weapon King showed her.

King took one of the guns out, brandishing the long barrel of the anti-material sniper rifle. "AR-50, an anti-material sniper rifle. Since you girls are carrier, the admiral told me that you girls have pretty good eyesight so I thought maybe you girls would do well when using long range rifles." He cocked the bolt action back, chambering a large .50 Cal into the chamber. "The recoil on snipers is nothing to be messed with, but since you're ship girls, I'm sure that's not a problem for you."

Akagi, having seen King chamber the bullet inside, raised a question. "Is that how we are going to reload the gun, but isn't that less practical than the rest of the guns the other girls have?"

"Yeah, since it's a bolt action rifle." King answered. "I'd give you a Tac-50 but these're the only ones we have on our storage. Besides, when you're using these guns, you won't be moving that much since you'll be sniping from one position only. You'll have all the time you'll need to reload this baby."

As he prepped the rest of the guns for the carriers, King asked them to follow him a few meters away. "We'll be going further away from the targets just so that you girls can see how much power this gun has." King raised the heavy rifle to position, his good eye looking into the scope. "When you're firing from a standing position, it's gonna be hard so try not to breathe too fast otherwise you'll screw up when you're shooting. In a real combat situation, you'll have to worry about wind and humidity and all that, but since we're covered by the buildings around us, there's no wind." King lowered his rifle. "Try to hit the targets farthest back and oh, whatever happens, don't drop the guns. They're not cheap."

Zuikaku, having understood what to do, decided that it was her chance to show her older sister that she could do it without problem. "Hmph, we've fired heavy things before so there won't be any problem with this gun."

King shrugged. "Fine, don't say I didn't warn ya."

Zuikaku copied the stance that King showed just a while ago, but since she was used to firing her carrier issued bows, it got a little awkward. Suppressing the awkwardness, she tried to relax herself.

Big mistake.

 **PAAAAOOOOOOOOOON!**

Every ship girl present was caught off guard by the noise that they just heard, the non-carriers looked to see what happened but they couldn't figure out what. Zuikaku nearly dropped the rifle, the only thing preventing it from dropping was her carrier strength. Even so, she traded her own safety for that. Fortunately, King was there to stop her from falling by holding her shoulders from the back, an awkward sight, but served the girl right for not listening to him.

"Told'cha." King smirked. "Hey the rest of you listen. Don't ever try to relax while shooting these things when standing cuz it's the biggest mistake you can only make. It may not kick ya but if you're not prepared, you'll still get caught by the recoil. Relaxing may be fine when you're in prone, but never when you're standing."

"D—Don't touch me so casually!" Zuikaku, realizing what kind position she was in, scrambled away from the man while going red on the face due to embarrassment.

King shrugged again. "Here's another round for that." He handed her another .50 Cal round. "Oh and make sure not to drop the gun _and_ yourself this time." He snickered while saying that, irking the girl further.

"S—Shuddup!" she barked one last time, before joining her fellow carriers to try shooting more.

King was approached by the admiral, who took off his cap to adjust his hair. "I must say, for someone who's not an officer or a part of the navy, you handle the girls well." Admiral Yoshikawa commented, impressed.

King shrugged his shoulders loosely. "It helps when the girls aren't acting as if they'd come out from a Terminator movie." King said jokingly, earning a laugh from the admiral. "Besides, I say that there's still room for improvements. And I can do that later on missions since I know that I'll be in charge of them in the field."

"Oh, what makes you say that?" King could only describe the admiral's smile as cunning.

"After what you saw yesterday, I try to just come up with what's the most predictable conclusion I could come up with."

"So just take it up the ass and don't bitch about it?"

"…Man, you're a sailor after all huh?"

The two men shared a laugh.


	5. More human?

"How's Ru doing?"

"…" A pause. King waited patiently until his friend who was on the other end of the line could answer him. _"It's not awake yet if that's what you're asking me King. Our boys managed to get readings on her condition, but there's nothing solid just yet. Give them a little bit more time and they should be able to tell you what's going on."_ Tae explained. _"How are things on your end?"_

King sighed tiredly. "Still busy with observations here in Yokosuka. You know, I don't really know what it is I'm observing because if the navy's telling me to get a better clue at what the girls are capable of doing, I think I already get a good idea about it."

It's been four days ever since Ru was captured and there was still no signs of her waking up, of course, this only meant that King had time to monitor the girls in their simulated training exercises. The navy brass had yet to give the girls or the new task force any assignments to be done and King couldn't blame them. With the construction of the base currently ongoing, they had to use Yokosuka as their base since it's the only naval base in Japan which had ship girls stationed it. He asked admiral Yoshikawa as to why there weren't any ship girls stationed at the other naval bases in Japan and his answer was simple. Since the ship girls were still new, the navy was still monitoring them, which explained why the development team was around. And now that the newly formed combined taskforce between the JMSDF and Red Arrow was created, the chances of having the girls stationed in other naval bases got slimmer. Though there were no solid statements just yet.

Back to Ru… the Japanese still did not know that an Abyss-al battleship was in Red Arrow's custody and King didn't have any intention of letting them know either. The tech team back in Osaka told him that they haven't been able to figure out what was wrong with Ru, but one thing was clear, she was shut down with no way of waking up… at least for now. Progress was steady, but slow. The plan was for the team to manually reprogram Ru's processor so that they could wake her up, but that would risk losing valuable intel from Ru since every data or memories she have may or may not be deleted in the process. Regardless of the possible outcome, King still beckoned his men to continue their job.

Now… well, he's getting used to be treated as an outsider by the girls. It's not like he was not an outsider in the first place, he was already one, but now that he got a position—as minimal as it is—in the navy, the girls' opinions and thoughts of him were kind of… nice and somewhat thought wrenching to know. Hey, he's used to be viewed badly, but it didn't help him when these girls were actually robots. It made him feel less of a person and more like an alien, to be honest. Currently on the edge of the pier where he used to stand whenever he was in Yokosuka, he looked at the distant horizon with no particular thought at all. It all came snapping back when he heard Tae from his earpiece again.

" _Ah, I also have update from the construction team. They're done with one platform, but nothing too ready just yet. Electronic equipment are going to be transferred there via air and until they're done, that place's just a huge platform in the middle of the ocean. I'll give you another update later. And one more thing, I'm dividing this year's income for everyone's pay and keeping the profit for some additional miscellaneous facilities that you might be interested in for the base."_

"Like what?"

" _Like an aquarium perhaps? You love those…"_

"Oh yeah… well, remind that one to me too. King out." He took out his iPod from his pocket and plugged one of the earphones into his ear. He hummed to the song that was currently playing from his iPod, he made sure to hum as lowly as possible so that no one might saw him in his state. The song was one of his favorites and it became so quickly considering that he found out about it not too long ago from one of his men. It's instant crush by daft punk and he had to say, French people sure knew their music.

The sound of music playing was accompanied by the gentle splashing of waves against the pier, making for a rather mismatched symphony. He gazed out towards the horizon, his eye lost to the far beyond with no signs of returning anytime soon. King never knew that he would reach this far in his life. At first, Red Arrow was just a group of ex-militia soldiers trying to play in the game of power and fame. But now, they're a part of a combined taskforce with the Japanese navy, never thought that'd happen. His position in the taskforce may be jagged and unsure, but he would still have commands over the girls and that's saying something. He never thought that the Japanese would be that trusting, or maybe, it's just him thinking too much.

He was so deep into the music that he didn't notice someone calling out to him. and when he did notice, that someone was already behind him.

"Excuse me, are you King-san, the commander of the mercenaries?" a soft spoken but somewhat stoic female voice asked him in Japanese.

King took out his earphone immediately, paying attention to his caller. The first thing he could say about his caller was how stone faced her face was. Seriously, he'd seen more expression on a rock than her face. Still, she came here with a serious intent, and the most he could do was greet her with the same kind intent she's giving him.

"Yeah, what of it?" he asked a little bit dryly due to his dry lips.

Her expression did not change, as expected. "I'm Shiranui, the second ship of the Kagerou-class destroyers and I'm here to escort you to admiral Yoshikawa's location."

"What for?"

She shook her head. "I do not know, I was merely ordered to take you to him." she answered briefly.

King shrugged; if she didn't know, then he knew no more. "Well, take me to him then."

Shiranui nodded. "Please follow me."

Shiranui lead him through the pier and into the factory area. The place was not as busy as it was a few days ago, but there were still a number of people walking around with most of them being mechanics, why mechanics, he didn't know but one thing's clear, it was not for maintenance for the base. He was taken into the same factory building he was taken to a few days ago by the admiral. Shiranui continued to lead him inside, where several group of mechanics and scientists were present working on something particular. At that moment, he spotted admiral Yoshikawa and doctor Shinjo accompanied by his assistant whose name he had unfortunately forgotten.

"Ah King-san, you're here good." Doctor Shinjo was the first to notice him approaching with Shiranui.

"Good job for fetching him, Shiranui." The admiral said. "You may return now."

The pink haired and stoic faced destroyer saluted the officer before leaving.

"So what am I here for?" King asked either of the two men for an answer. Meanwhile, the assistant was busy scribbling down what seemed to be notes on her notepad.

"You're here because we're going over a few things; things that you'll need to know about the girls." The admiral said. King noticed the word 'you'll' was used, so it might be important. "I have talked with the admiralty board about deploying the girls and using them in land operations and they accepted the idea."

"Alright, cool." King commented.

"But, as standard procedures go, I can't go with them in any land based operations unless it's really necessary." Admiral Yoshikawa said in a bit of disappointed manner. He noticed that King noticed his tone. "Hey, I might be an officer, but there're times when I imagine putting myself there on the frontlines with my soldiers." He coughed. "Anyway, since I can't be there, you'll be in charge of the girls while you're on land, this includes any other operations that will have you deployed together with the girls. But still, I'll be keeping in touch with you."

"Yeah I understand why you're telling me this but… is there a point to tell me so soon?" King asked with confusion expression through his voice and face. "Do we even have any mission to begin with?"

This time, surprising King, it was doctor Shinjo who spoke. "As a matter of fact, you do." This beckoned both men to look at the elderly doctor. His secretary gave him the walking board that she'd been writing on for a while. "While the girls were still in the middle of the development stage, we have research facilities spread all throughout mainland to produce several prototypes of the guns that will be implemented as the girls' weapons. Unfortunately, with the evacuation of several prefectures due to the abyss-al threat, these facilities have been regarded as lost by the upper brass. Most of the facilities are either ransacked by looters or any other thugs who have managed to get their hands on whatever is inside the facilities, so we're not expecting to find a lot in the first place. However, we managed to locate four of all the factories that are not yet looted but instead taken over by local criminal power."

"Wait, wait. You tellin' me that gangsters took over your old facilities and used them as their own and the police did nothing about that?" There's no containing the amount of incredulity in King's tone.

The admiral and the doctor shuffled uneasily in their places. "There's a good reason for that. Now that more and more people are occupying other prefectures, especially those which didn't belong to the Kansai region, the police are having a hard time keeping up with the increasing amount of people. The war with the abyss made the people insecure of their security, so several criminal organizations from the yakuza took smuggling illegal weapons and distributing them in black markets as a way to get money in the middle of this crisis." Admiral Yoshikawa explained with a sigh, almost ashamed.

"Well I understand the part where the yakuza is distributin' illegals gun, but the problem is, where're they getting' them? I'm familiar with those kinds of works. Either they buy the weapons from abroad or someone from the military's distributin' the guns to them to get some of the money for their own without you knowin'." King explained.

"Are you trying to say that someone from the military's been distributing weapons illegally?"

"I'm not trying to say that someone from the military's been distributin' weapons illegally, I'm saying that someone from the military _might_ be sellin' the guns to mobsters for profit." King retorted without getting overwhelmed by the admiral's glare. "Don't get me wrong here admiral, but it's hard to get weapons from abroad with the abyss-al swimming around the seven seas with their fingers itchy on the trigger."

After hearing the last bit of information, the admiral's glare fell. "You may be right… but we can't come to that conclusion just yet, at least not until we have any evidence of having a rat in the ranks." Admiral Yoshikawa shook his head. "I'm hoping that you're wrong King, the military doesn't need having the people's trust in them lower than what it is already."

King shrugged his shoulders. "Then we repair that trust." His uncaring look transformed to a grin. "I know that you're gonna ask me to form a team of ship girls to seize one of those facilities and take whatever's salvageable, right?"

"You're not exactly wrong… but we are looking to recapture the facilities and possible transfer whatever equipment we could remove to be installed to our future base of operations." The elderly scientist said. "Admiral Yoshikawa will give you the mission details if you are ready to capture the facilities."

"Alright then, tell me your plans."

* * *

In one of the mission rooms inside of the base, King, admiral Yoshikawa, vice admiral Tanaka and some of the ship girls who were selected by the combined decision of King and the two naval officers were present to attend mission briefing. All the ship girls present were seated on chairs brought in and arranged by several sailors who were in the room earlier, now they're not here anymore because they were needed to finish their tasks. Admiral Yoshikawa was standing in front with King and vice admiral Tanaka on his sides; King's on the right while the female officer took the left. Behind the three figureheads was a blank white projector screen for use in this briefing, they need it for the reason so that the girls could understand the area of the operations.

"Sorry to call all of you here suddenly, but I'm sure that some of you who participated in the small arms training these past few days already know what's up." Admiral Yoshikawa started, stepping away from the middle to allow the projector's image be projected on the screen. The screen lit up to show a detailed satellite image of a location that the girls were not familiar with, but not in the situation of the three officers, two if you exclude the mercenary.

"As I've said before, I'm assuming that some of you know that we will eventually conduct a land operation. And we will, later." He paused for a while. "The mission will take place here in the mainland, Nagoya prefecture. The mission is to infiltrate and recapture a former military research facility. I say former because the place is now run over by local criminal gangs. The satellite picture you're seeing shows the location of the facility and as you can see, it's too exposed to civilian locations. The reason for that is because the facility was designed to look like a normal storage building to prevent anyone from discovering government activity inside. But now that the place's infested with gangsters, it's become a must for us to eliminate everyone inside and capture the place as our own."

Immediately, King noticed different reactions from the ship girls. Some were surprised when admiral Yoshikawa revealed the conclusion while some were merely acting quiet.

Regardless of what the girls were feeling, the admiral continued. "We will have the assistance of the local law enforcement, purely so that we could capture the base under the guise of police activity." The slide changed, showing several more pictures of the facility that they were going to capture. "We do not know what the gangs have been doing with the equipment inside the facility, I highly doubt that they even know it's one in the first place, but there is a weapon storage area inside that facility so I'm not surprised if you're going to find resistance once you're inside. And on another important note," the admiral turned his head slightly towards the eye patch wearing man in the room. "King-san will be leading you through the mission and you are to follow his orders as if they are my own. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir!" the girls chorused as one.

"Good. King-san, if you please."

King nodded. "Thank you admiral." He then returned his attention to the girls. "Four battleships… four carriers… six destroyers…" he counted to himself. "Alright, here's what we will do: destroyers Kagerou, Shiranui, Wakaba and Murakumo will be usin' assault rifles and on point with me the whole time whenever we're inside that facilities. Battleships Ise and Hyuuga will be with me for support, you'll be using heavy machine guns for more power. Carriers, I'm puttin' you girls outside of the building on nearby rooftops to act as our eyes while we're inside. You'll be given snipers and your main job is to keep me informed of what goes in and out of the facilities when I'm inside and to protect our extraction. I'm also putting battleships Nagato and Mutsu in charge for another important part of my plan. Once me and the girls I ask to be around me enter, you two will sweep in with the special assault team who're on standby and create a diversion on the other side of the facility. It'll be messy so I want destroyers Ayanami and Shikinami to be with the carriers, just in case if they figured out the carriers' positions. Once all hostiles are dead or they're smart enough to surrender, then it's mission accomplished." King finished his explanation. "So before we gear up, any questions?"

A few of them raised their hands.

"You, Kagerou."

"I didn't participate in any small arms practice, even if I get Nui-chan to share her memories, I'm not sure if I can shoot as well as the girls who came to practice…" Kagerou, a destroyer class ship girl who had a pair of twin tails as hairstyle, said awkwardly.

"Don't worry, I don't expect you girls to perform so well in the first place, but I'm expectin' you to learn from this mission." King explained. "Next, Nagato."

"You said that we will receive the help of the law enforcement, how will their part play out in all of this?" the tall battleship asked with a serious look that fits her.

"They'll be surrounding the place by the time we get there, so I'll be expecting fighting when the girls and I enter. Once the shooting began, you and Mutsu and the SAT guys will be a diversion attacking from another point. Their attention is divided and from there and on, it's divide and conquer for us." Nagato nodded at his explanation, finding no flaws in it.

"Next, Kaga."

"Sir, I have no problems with being outside of the fight, but why is the fifth cardiv participating in this mission? The girls from the second cardiv are more than capable than they are." Somehow, Kaga managed to say this with a straight face.

"Hey Kaga! Don't diss us just because you're better!" Zuikaku, if King was right, openly showed her disagreement with a pointed finger at the older carrier.

"Once again, you have admitted that I am indeed better than you."

"Why you…"

"Enough, enough." King intervened before Zuikaku's sister, Shoukaku. "Kaga, both of your admirals and I have gone through the planning already. We don't have time to inform carriers Souryuu and Hiryuu about the mission." King said in a voice that is so unlike him. "Zuikaku and Shoukaku, along with both you and Akagi, are taking the firearm training so I want all experienced carriers on the field. If you have any problems with whatever decision me and your commanders have pulled, then we're allowin' you to sit this down."

After hearing King's explanation, Kaga nodded in understanding. "Very well, I shall bear with the current situation that I have to put up with."

"Hey! Don't say it as if we're burdens to the fleet!" Zuikaku's irritated outburst was somehow amusing to watch.

Kaga merely rolled her eyes. "I'm not trying to make it sound as if you're going to be a burden; I know that you will be a burden."

"Enough I said!" King raised his voice, which quieted both bickering carriers. "Seriously, you two act like trainee soldiers who're fightin' over a lunch menu…" Admiral Yoshikawa smiled openly at King's misfortune. "Don't just smile at me ninny, they're your girls, control them."

"But you're doing such a fine job at it, are you sure you don't want to be made an officer of the navy?" If anything, admiral Yoshikawa was laughing inside.

"No." King said with a frown. "I got my own army to worry about and that's not includin' all the shit other countries are throwin' at us…" the eye patch wearing mercenary coughed to his fist. "Basically, the mission will be invade and conquer. Shoot everyone you see, but if they drop their guns, consider on knockin' out their teeth in exchange. So, finally, any questions?"

Unsurprisingly, someone raised a hand.

"Yes, Shoukaku."

Zuikaku turned her head to the side to look at her sister.

"Um… sir, wouldn't it be easier if we were to come and attack the facility with our ship guns instead of regular weapons?" The white haired carrier asked nervously due to her calm and caring nature.

"We considered that." Admiral Yoshikawa answered instead of King. "But the admiralty suggest not to because we do not want to waste any resource for a side op that could be done by human operatives." He then flicked his thumb at the younger man beside him. "Believe it or not, I'd rather have his men storm the place and get it for us."

"Ha ha ha, so funny, much genius, such idea…" King was a little bit too heavy on the sarcasm there. "My boys're busy with the construction already, so I don't need you botherin' them at something they're doin' for the fleet. Besides, it's you who said that this'll be a good idea to see how well the girls are gonna perform on land."

Admiral Yoshikawa shrugged.

"Okay, now that we've wrapped things up, I want all of you to get ready and gear up for combat. Go to the arsenal, Akashi's there to prep you girls up."

"Yes sir!"

* * *

It was just about time for the mission and the girls were geared up for combat. King was standing on the helipad in full gear, dressed in his usual ACU type uniform with a load bearing vest over it, the AR-500 ballistic plates were there to provide resistance from bullets. He packed light and by light he meant carrying only one primary and a secondary. He's using a FAMAS G2 which was another variant of the French made assault rifle which featured faster rate of fire, better range and a 30 round STANAG magazine unlike the F1 which used the original 25 round cap mag. The assault rifle was also equipped with several other attachments as well; there's a round foregrip underneath the gun to allow for better handling, stocks have been custom modify to provide comfort while shooting with the implementation of rubber paddings, King won't have to actually feel sore for shooting too long this time. There are no optics, but since he was gearing up for a CQC operation, he doubted that he'll need any. As for his sidearm, he's using a Walther P99. Inside the tactical pouches of his load bearing vest are ammunitions for the two guns he had.

He was accompanied by admiral Yoshikawa and vice admiral Tanaka who were going to see him and the girls off. Speaking of the girls… here they were, approaching.

"Ugh… these vests are uncomfortable when worn over our chest plate…" Zuikaku complained as she patted her uncomfortable vest. She was holding an AR-50 with only one arm due to her carrier strength. "Shoukaku-nee, are you uncomfortable too?"

"Y-Yes… I have to say that wearing this bulletproof vest over our muneate is indeed uncomfortable…" the older sister laughed awkwardly. She too was carrying an AR-50, in fact, all carriers present were armed with AR-50. Akagi and Kaga walked over to the two sisters, carrying their own rifles.

"It's common sense that you'd remove your muneate before wearing the vest, fifth cardiv." Kaga slung the sniper over her shoulder, as she raised her nose in a superior yet somehow managed to retain her stoic demeanor. It also puts a lot of emphasize on her chest. "If you can't even put some thoughts on common sense, how could you perform well on the field?"

Akagi giggled as she leaned in on the conversation. "There's still some time left before the mission starts, why not remove them first?"

"I-I know about that!" Zuikaku stammered bashfully as she looked away from the two senior carriers. "I don't need Kaga to tell me. Hmph!" Shoukaku could only laugh more awkwardly than before.

While the girls from the second cardiv were busy correcting their mistake, the destroyers and battleships were over on their own groups.

"Ugh… why do they have to make such uncomfortable battle attire?" Nagato complained with a slightly irritated look as she tried to loosen the straps on her vest. Mutsu, fortunately for Nagato, was there to help her readjust the straps that were starting to make her uncomfortable.

The battleship with the shorter hair sets aside her LMG for a while on the ground as she helped her sister. "Here let me help you with that, nee-san." She did her job. "There we go, all comfortable?"

"Better."

Over with Ise and Hyuuga, the two sisters were not as busy as the Nagato-class as they were comfortable with their fittings. However, that didn't mean that everything's fine.

"Hmm… I'm not used to fighting with such a compact weapon." Ise muttered out as she inspected her Minimi. "It's not as heavy as our ship guns, in fact it's way lighter but strange… humans consider this as a heavy weapon, why's that?"

"It's probably because they are less compact and convenient for humans." Hyuuga answered in her straightforward and informative tone. "The ammunitions used are way larger than the guns we used during practice, meaning that it's of a different caliber. I can already see us ripping through walls with these."

"Uhm… this is different from the guns we used during practices…" Ayanami said out while inspecting her gun. She, along with the other destroyers, were given FN F200s.

"I don't care, as long as we're able to work with it… hn." Shikinami said confidently.

Wakaba was silently standing staring and doing nothing in particular, it seemed that she was waiting for instructions.

"Ne, Nui-chan, have you ever used this gun before during practice?" Kagerou asked her ship sister who she thought might be knowledgeable to use the weapon that was assigned to them. "It looks fancy that's for sure, but from what I can tell, it's not really the same as the ones that the other girls were using, right?"

Shiranui nodded. "Yes, though there should be no problem using this." She raised her gun to inspect the magazine. "Instead of the ones that we used before, the magazine for this gun is at the back. It'll be easier to reach because of the shorter distance it gives when reaching for it."

"Eh… how are your shooting, Nui-chan?"

"So-so." The pink haired destroyer shrugged.

Murakumo joined in on the rest of the destroyers, sporting her own FN F2000. "Don't you feel awkward wearing these vests… they're so… baggy."

Both Kagerou and Shiranui averted their eyes from each other and on to the white haired destroyer's chest… or what little bits they could find from it. In unison, they sighed. Kagerou, for some reason that was unknown to Murakumo, gave the Fubuki-class destroyer a sympathizing look as well as a hand on the shoulder. "You'll get there… eventually." She felt sad too, for some reason.

Murakumo merely blinked with a confused expression on her face.

"Oi, oi, all of you there gather here and listen up." The girls did as they were ordered too. King waited until the girls settle down, standing in their groups. "We're gonna fly all the way to Nagano and once we reach our AO, the op will begin immediately. Carriers, you'll be dropped on the building you'll be on along the way and those who're going to be with me, follow my instructions."

"Yes sir!" all of them chorused as one.

"Good, now, we're waiting until our ride gets here." He clipped his FAMAS to the buckle he had attached on the straps of his vest so that he can use his hands freely. He took out his iPod from one of the many pockets available and proceeded to listen in to his songs.

" _Playing Daft Punk - Instant Crush"_

Again, he didn't care whatever things that people had to say about his music.

Not long later, an Osprey which bore the emblem of Red Arrow descended. King and the girls quickly got into the aircraft but not without admiral Yoshikawa's words. "King, take care of the girls." He gave the eye patch wearing young man an almost intimidating look.

King grinned. "Leave it all to me, _dad_." He snickered as the ramp rises up to close the cabin shut. "Alright girls, while we're getting there, relax yourselves and review the mission details from your database."

"Sir, do we really have to…" Wakaba was reluctant to complete her question, because she knew the weight that it carried. "Kill those people there?"

King, remembering that the girls were not meant to kill humans but protect them, was instantly rid of his bright side. "I won't lie to you; you'll really have to fight those guys. But if they're surrenderin', give them a chance, but if they waste it, shoot them." The young man's voice turned hard. "I know that you girls weren't meant to kill humans or people in general but… isn't it the same as it used to be when you're still warships?" King asked.

"We… it's… it's complicated, sir." Ayanami muttered lowly, her sister sitting closely next to her. "Our warship memories were all injected to us as a part of our database, meaning that they aren't really our memory, but instead those created by the developers in order to supply us with past knowledge." Her bangs loomed over her eyes, covering them. "…And now that we're given a human body, it feels much different."

"It's as if it's easier to kill in this body rather than our old warship hull." Nagato continued as she flexed her arms to the side, along with her fingers as if she was loosening them up. "You must understand that we are not used to this human body just yet, sir. But if it is about killing, in the end of the day, killing is killing."

King was only silent. He could only observe everyone's gloomy mood as his song was playing in his ears. Just how far did the developers go with the creation of these girls? How much effort did they put in making them, exactly? Because, seriously speaking, he's feeling like he's in a bus full of teenage girls who're about to have their first kill for whatever reason. It's not a feeling he's used to, but it's something he's familiar with. It reminded him of his early years as a child soldier in the Militaristic Revolution Party where he used to ride in convoy trucks to battle with other kids who're about his age. They all knew that they'll die and that survival meant luck and skill. King had both luck and skill, but these girls were not sure about that. In fact, they're worried about killing.

It's kind of ironic, now that he thought about it. Back then, he was worried that he'd get killed while fighting. While these girls, they're worried about killing and not getting killed. Ironic and, dare he say, sad.

"Well, that just leaves one option ain't it?" King suddenly stood on his feet, catching the attention of the girls. "As for the duration of the mission, I'm orderin' you girls to shoot any hostiles you see, and I want you to shoot them dead. If they surrender, knock them out, and if they try to run, shoot their legs so they couldn't."

"That's! That's… cruel!" Zuikaku shouted out without any restraint or concern about her position. She viewed King heatedly with a ferocious glare. "We're not you who's used to kill people! We're meant to kill those Abyss-als, not people!"

"What's the difference?" King questioned without a slight waver on his tone. "Thugs… freaks… Abyss-als… as long as they're enemies, then your main – _our_ main priority is to neutralize'em without second thoughts." King clicked his tongue as a way to show his irritation. "Everything you do will always be for the mission's success, remember that. Forget morals when fighting with idiots who still stayed behind after the cops told them to leave. They practically asked for it and here we are, flying over to them, to answer their call."

"There are times where you girls have to be what you really are, machines." King's tone was cold. "You work without questioning, follow without wondering and act with no hesitation. If I can be a machine, then so . can . you." He placed emphasize on the last three words.

"Kuh…!" Zuikaku, knowing that King was right, slowly returned to her seat with fists clenched. Her sister, Shoukaku, gripped her shoulder to let her know that she was there.

Noticing that he'd made the atmosphere even more uncomfortable, King sighed. "Look here, just… follow orders. Don't question me when I make decisions in the field, do that on the base." He swept a hand through his hair, almost reaching the short ponytail he had growing. "By the end of the day, you'll learn why we have to kill our feelings in order to work properly." King mentioned. "And don't tell me I didn't tell ya."

The girls only kept silent.

* * *

"Alright, everyone read me?" King received three different replies from each girl who he'd chosen to lean. Nagato and Mutsu were currently with the SAT team on the other side of the facility, ready to burst inside the moment he and his girls who were with him enter. Nagato was the one who responded on that side. Kaga and the rest of the carriers, including Shikinami and Ayanami, were already stationed on a rooftop a block away from their current location. Kaga responded earlier. And finally, his own girls who're with him.

Unsurprisingly, they didn't see any hostiles outside of the facilities. The reason for that was because the police got the whole block locked down, so that logically left the thugs to hole themselves inside of the facilities. Currently, King and the girls he asked to be with him were in position behind the facility, exactly right where the backdoor was at. Meanwhile, a heavily armed SAT team was joined by Mutsu and Nagato who will barge in at the same time as them right at the front door. He won't guarantee it but it seemed that the shooting will be heavier on their side. SAT would normally breach their way in through windows but the problem is, there weren't any. Why? He didn't know, ask the government.

" _Carriers have clear sights on the building, sir."_ Kaga whispered through her communications device.

" _The Special Assault Team is ready sir, we'll deal with the ones on our side and will proceed with the plan."_ Nagato said in a confident tone.

"Alright, good. What about you girls, ready?" King took a moment to look at the girls who're with him. The destroyers were still uneasy, but Ise and Hyuuga were ready. Regardless, the mission is a go. King gripped the foregrip attachment of his rifle harder, his muscles were getting tense. "Hyuuga, Ise, kick the door down on my go." The two battleships reposition themselves beside the door.

"Go!" with the combined strength of two battleships, the door was easily launched off from its hinges. "Everyone in! Guns up and fire at will!" King's team swooped in the building starting in with him and his destroyer escorts first, Hyuuga and Ise hanged back for a while to guard their rear just as planned. King heard explosions going off on the other side of the building, it looked like the SAT started already. And he was right. Gunshots, he's hearing them from deeper in the building.

As the team entered, they made quick work of the hallways, they haven't encounter any hostiles yet. "Thank god these guys are dumb enough to concentrate all their numbers on the front…"

"Sir, I'm getting activities deeper in the building." Kagerou informed King, her FN F2000 close to her sights. "A lot of them sir, about thirty more."

"Can you confirm that they're not focusing attention at their flank?"

"Confirmed." Kagerou informed once again. "They're too busy dealing with the unit who breached through the front door, their flank is open."

King grinned. "Looks like this might turn out easier than I expected." He might as well say that they got the situation at hand since this was going along smoothly. "Alright, let's hurry and help the others, move it, move it!"

Not long later, King's team reached the location of the shooting. He hadn't order his squad to shoot just yet, but that's about to change in just a moment. "Ise, Hyuuga, make sure that no one comes from behind! Destroyers, open fire!" from the balcony that overlooks the main lobby of the facility, where most of the thugs were at dealing with the SAT forces who're coming in from the front, King's destroyers open fires with their firearms.

"What the- they got backups!"

"FUCK!"

"We're getting' murdered here goddamit!"

Murakumo, Wakaba, Shiranui and Kagerou let their bullets soar into the people down below. More of the thugs started to drop dead due to being bombarded with countless bullets by the destroyers, their blood spilled onto the floor. "Keep it up girls! Don't let them get to cover!" King too joined in, as he fired his rifle in burst. Slowly but effectively, the thugs down below managed to find cover from whatever things they could find. Shelves, tables and broken down large metal signs, everyone was fighting over position.

"This doesn't feel right…" Murakumo muttered lowly. "They can't even fight properly." She saw one of the thugs kicking their friend away just so that he could get behind cover, which cost the other guy's life as well as his due to King's marksmanship.

"That just makes it easier for us to get this place cleaned." King responded to Murakumo's statement. "Team, let's get down there and box'em in! The others will do the same from their side." King vaulted over the balcony's railing and into the floor below him. Apparently, the facility went down underground. They weren't kidding when the government was making this a secret facility. He didn't even bother trying to find cover with how bad the thugs were managing themselves. He basically stood there, opened fire and joined in by his girls who proceeded to do the same.

"King, we're almost at your position, how're things on your side?" Nagato, who King reckoned was sweeping the other hallway with the SAT, asked through comms.

"Easy peasy." King said nonchalantly. "But don't let your guard down! They might have reinforcements hiding in some places of the facility!" King told her with his voice raised.

Kagerou and Shiranui hopped down to join him on finishing the rest of the thugs. Kagerou, having finished her clip, slapped another fresh magazine into her gun. "Nui-chan, hostiles to the right hallway, they're coming in!"

The pink haired destroyer responded by switching her focus to the location mentioned by her older sister. Three men using assault rifles came barging in, and they all end up dead in no more than ten seconds due to Shiranui. "Hmph, foolish."

"Nice shooting there Shiranui!" King hollers in glee. "Let's push through and regroup with Nagato and the SAT team!" the young man began to move, running from cover to cover while constantly shooting at the same time. "Ise, Hyuuga, ditch that door and regroup with us!" King ordered the two battleships, seeing as there's no need to pay the backdoor any mind at the moment.

As the fighting went on, the location changed from an open lobby to a hallway full of rooms. Murakumo rushed towards the hall, taking quick aim and fire before taking cover inside of the room. She peeked out to get several more shots. One of the thugs dropped dead when a bullet pierces right through his throat, giving him a slow and agonizing death. The way the man gurgled and choked in his own blood was unnerving for Murakumo, but she dismissed it quickly.

"Sir, Nagato-san is just up ahead!" Shiranui informed the team and King specifically in the middle of shooting.

"Copy that!" King replied. "Nagato, we're just in front of you, check your fire! Check your fire!"

"Team, unit 01 is just ahead of us, check your fire before you shoot!"

The remaining thugs, about ten of them, were boxed in in the middle of the hall, but they were persistent. Wakaba, who've been standing next to King the whole time acting as an escort, spotted two thugs trying to flank their position by going through one of the rooms. She abandoned her position next to King, relocating herself inside the room where the thugs entered. As soon as she entered, she spotted the two thugs and caught them by surprise. Several sprays from her FN F2000 was all that it take for the two fools to die, Wakaba could only stare before she returned to her position. At least they died quick.

" _King I see you! Check fire on us too!"_ Nagato's voice bled through King's earpiece in static.

Slapping another fresh mag into his FAMAS, the eye patch wearing man resumed firing after taking cover. "Roger that!" he fired his gun, and while firing, he could see Nagato and Mutsu along with the escort of SAT operatives from where he was at. He reduced the amount of bullets he's letting out, just so that no one from the other team will get fired in mistake. Ise and Hyuuga's heavy machine guns were doing a good job of keeping the thugs pinned down in their position; he reckoned that they're helpless. But if they won't surrender, they'll have to continue firing.

"W-W-W-W-Wait! Wait-wait!" one of them tried to stand, his face morphing into fear and panic as he lugged his gun away to the side. "I give up, I surrender! Don't shoot!" the rest surviving thugs realized that it was futile to put up a fight with the kind of firepower being thrown at them, so they surrendered too.

King raised a fist in the air, telling his girls to hold fire. Nagato did the same for her team. Still with his weapon raised, King stepped forward. "Then put yourself on the ground, all of you. Now!"

And they did just that.

"Shiranui, Kagerou, Murakumo; make sure that these idiots don't try anything funny and tie'em up with those chain links I saw in one of the rooms. Wakaba, Ise, Hyuuga; check out our six and make sure that no surprise is comin' our way." King instructed his girls to move. He made his way to the other team, the SAT squad leader was given order to clear and make sure that hostiles are dealt with. So, they began to help the destroyers to tie up the thugs who're on the ground.

"King, sir," King was joined by Nagato. "All hostiles in the western side of the building are neutralized, all that's left is to check upstairs and downstairs."

"Right. Alright everyone listen up!" King spoke out. "We're gonna resume our mission to clear this place out, chances are, there still might be resistance upstairs and downstairs."

"But how sure are we?" Mutsu asked, lifting her Minimi close to her. "We encountered a lot of them here, isn't this the last of them?"

King kneeled down in front one of the thugs who've surrendered. "How about we ask one of our friends here for that…" the man, seeing King was focusing at him, flinched. "How many guys are there in this building?"

"There're forty of us!" the man screamed out with tears on the corner of his eyes, he lowered his head as if desperately pleading to not be shot. "We asked some of ta' boys ta' stay put upstairs! Some're downstairs too! Please, don't hurt me!"

"Chill down ya' fuck twat, you're under arrest now, not in the middle of an execution." King slapped the man behind the back harshly, causing him to squeal in fear and surprise. King stood back to his feet. "You heard the man, we're checkin' the rest of the places. SAT, I reckon that your job here is done?"

One of the SAT operatives, the captain, nodded. "Yes sir, we're done here boys." He said to his men. "We'll be taking these punks in."

"You do that." King sighed tiredly as he wiped a sweat from his forehead. But sadly, there's no time to rest yet. "Alright, let's split up. Wakaba, Murakumo, Ise, Hyuuga; you go downstairs and clear it. Mutsu, Nagato, with me; we're goin' upstairs."

The entire team split up just as King instructed them to. Wakaba and Murakumo, both being destroyers escort, were advancing in front of the two battleships to act as spotters. They descended to the lower levels of the facility through the hallway where the fighting before happened, as they descended down the flight of stairs, Murakumo and Wakaba could already pick up hostiles signature swarming towards their position.

"Contacts just ahead of us, ready your guns!" Murakumo warned the rest, her own gun raised. The shooting soon happened when they reached the bottom floor, now, the fighting was taking place in a large storage area where there were countless wooden crates, metal ones and cardboard boxes scattered and placed all over the area. "Take cover!"

"Destroyers, spot the hostiles and leave the shooting to us, your weapons won't be able to pierce through these boxes!" Ise ordered as she steadied her sights on one of the thugs who just ducked into cover. As expected, her machine gun's power allowed her to shoot through the wooden box the guy was using to hide himself.

Hyuuga wordlessly focused her fire to a group who was trying to pin their position. She allowed several 5.56x45mm bullets to hit her, it hurts, but nothing when compared to taking damage from ship guns. The sight of Hyuuga tanking several bullets caused a bit of surprise and fear on the enemy's side, however fear was quickly replaced by fiercer determination to shoot the battleship. Hyuuga sprinted forward, blindly firing her machine gun, she got several shots left before she needed to change to a fresh mag. With most of the fire being concentrated on Hyuuga, the thugs neglected Ise who then proceeded to pick them off one at a time, scoring headshots.

"Ise-san, contacts to the left." Wakaba informed quickly as she shifted her sights to the left. A sea of more armed thugs came rushing in with automatic weapons. "Let me deal with them!"

"I'll leave it to you!" Ise shouted from her spot as she cleared her own area from the presence of hostiles. "Hyuuga, let's finish them up quick!"

"On it." Hyuuga muttered as she reloaded her weapon as quickly as she could.

"Wakaba, there's still some left!" Murakumo shouted as she aimed down the sights to shoot a thug dead. "I'm almost out of ammo, just how many are they?!"

"Estimating to be only five left, let's make this quick, Murakumo-san." Wakaba said before resuming her action of shooting. The FN F2000 fired a spray of bullets to hit three hostiles, rendering them crippled. Wakaba did not spare them another second as she fired for the kill.

Soon later, everything came to a quiet halt. Murakumo, having slapped another mag into her gun, looked around. "We clear?"

"Not detecting anything." Wakaba informed. "We're clear."

"Good." Ise sighed. "I'll go inform King-san. Sir, all enemy hostiles eliminated on the lower levels."

" _Ah, 'zatso?"_ a voice bled through the other end of the line. _"We're done up here too. The bastards thought that it's a good idea to hide and try'na ambush us inside of a storage unit up here…"_ one could taste the disappointment in his tone. _"We'll regroup downside in the lobby. Carriers, you've been quiet all this time, anythin' to report?"_

"— _No, it's because you're the one who needs to calm down!"_

" _I will not follow through your insubordination any longer, stand down fifth cardiv."_

" _Z-Z-Zuikaku! Kaga-senpai! P-Please stop fighting!"_

" _Ara, ara… King-dono, sir, it seemed that something has happened while you were away."_

The sound of Kaga and Zuikaku arguing was heard throughout the entire communications line with Shoukaku's desperate attempt to calm them both down. Akagi didn't seem like she's being any help and every ship girls who're inside the facility pitied the destroyers who're stuck with the carriers on the roof.

One could hear King slapping himself right on the face. "Well, I guess this is what happens when you leave a ship girl with no jobs…" probably a mistake to bring carriers out here, since the fighting was done inside and not outside of the building. But he could never be too careful. "Carriers, stop your ridiculous fight and get ready to regroup outside of the facility. Team, we're changin' our meeting point."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, King and the girls who went inside the building were outside of the facility waiting for the four carriers and two destroyers escort who're with them to arrive. King was hitting his iPod as he was left with nothing to do. Police were already inside the building, bagging the bodies and doing cleanups. He reported back to base earlier and they'll send a team of mechanics and scientist to salvage whatever equipment they could.

Wakaba was standing on the edge of a pavement trying to detect the carriers' group presence. Not long later, she was greeted with a result. "They're here." Everyone turned their heads toward the road where the carriers and the two destroyer escorts who're placed with them arriving with each carrying their own guns.

As expected, they didn't look cheerful at all. Both Kaga and Zuikaku were walking faraway from each other, both of them being on each end of the row. Akagi was smiling despite how things seemed to be going on and Shoukaku was dejected beyond scale. Ayanami and Shikinami were walking together with uneasy and awkward expressions on their face. It seemed that being on the roof with two arguing carriers made it awkward for them.

"Took ya' long enough…" King pulled out one of his earpiece so that he could listen to the girls' reason. "Now, tell me, why the fuck were the two of ya' arguing like a bunch of kiddies?"

Shoukaku was about to answer in their behalf but a glare from King shut her down.

Kaga turned her face towards the eye patch wearing man. "The fifth cardiv, that one in particular, was blabbing about how nice it would actually participate in an actual fight and not stuck on watch duty. And I, being a responsible and obedient senior, told her to shut her mouth and direct her complain elsewhere."

"Well it was more than that!" Zuikaku butted in, finding her place in the conversation. "Kaga began talking about how ridiculous me and Shoukaku-nee being there was like. So I told her that 'I doubt that your old eyes could even see a meter away' and she told me to get hit by a torpedo and sink!" she raised her arms exaggeratedly. "We're on land! We can't sink here!"

"And let me guess, the rest of the argument is about how possible it is for an aircraft carrier to get sunk while on land?" King asked without batting an eye.

The four carriers and two destroyers nodded at the same time.

King facepalmed.

"Haah…" he sighed disappointedly. Not at the girls, but at himself. "I suppose it's my mistake…"

"S-Sir, it's not yours, it's Kaga's!" Zuikaku protested.

"It is the fifth cardiv's mistake." It's almost funny to see how similar the two were despite them always fighting.

"Look." King raised his hand. "It's my mistake. Bringing you girls here was my mistake." Instantly, all got quiet. "Now don't get that the wrong way because after seeing what just happened, there wasn't a need for sniper watch in this mission. I should've at least assigned different roles for you girls. Still, what's done is done. I don't want you two to fight like kids in the middle of future missions; if you wanna fight, then fight the bad guys." King muttered. "I called a bird to pick us up, in the meantime, we could hang back and talk."

"Talk…sir?" Shoukaku asked, unsure of what King was trying to say.

"Yes, talk." King set himself down on a curb, tuning the volumes of his music down a little bit. "you carriers didn't get any action, so I'm directing my statement to the ones who're inside. Tell me something; how did it felt like to be in that kind of fight?"

Unsurprisingly, Nagato spoke first, having settled her machine gun down, she stood in a relaxed manner. "It was not as different as I thought it would be, sir. While moving on water is much faster than on land, shooting was fairly easier since we were using small arms weaponry instead of our ship weapons."

King nodded. "Alright, what about you, Wakaba, Murakumo, Ise, Hyuuga, Mutsu, Shiranui, Kagerou?"

Wakaba spoke first. "It was an exhilarating experience. One that I do not mind experiencing again." She said simply before shutting up.

King briefly glanced at her. "I see. You, Murakumo?"

The white haired destroyer flicked a lock of hair off from her face and to the side. "I felt disgust when I saw several of them sacrificing their friends' lives just so that they could live. I'm glad I killed them." For once, the usually cold and quiet destroyer really meant her words.

"Well… I don't think that I got anything to say other than it was a good start for us to get some field experience for future missions." Ise told the rest. "But, I think I'm going to need some time to get used to shooting people… er… yeah."

Hyuuga remained silent, but a faraway look was present on her face.

"Ah… well, it's all fast paced and quick. More brutal than the fights we had at sea that's for sure." Kagerou commented. "Isn't that right, Nui-chan?"

The pink haired destroyer silently agreed with a nod.

"Hmm… I don't have anything to say but if there's anything… why do those people have to die." Everyone perked up at the question that Mutsu brought up. "It would be good if they surrendered so that we could arrest them, right? So, why do we have to kill all of them?"

"First of all, with the kind of greeting we got, did it look like they're lookin' to talk?" At this question, Mutsu looked away, embarrassed. "Secondly, we did manage to arrest some of them. Look, the police're doing their job right now." King gestured towards the group of armed officers escorting the thugs to put them into arrest. "And as for what happened to those we killed, it'd be easier to say that we're doin' the Supreme Court their job."

"The supreme court… what did they have to do with all of this?" Zuikaku asked, honestly confused.

King shrugged. "Let's see it like this; when criminals got arrested, they're trialed, right? Then comes the punishment. These guys, they're members of the yakuza, organized crime syndicates who're exploiting all the money that the people are makin'. Though that fact may be found true in most politicians these days, what matters's that we got them. With the kind of charges they had, a death sentence would be the most possible and suitable punishment. Those guys we _arrested_ , they're just gonna be put on death row, they're waitin' in line to be injected with deathly toxins that will eventually send them to hell. See the difference?"

"No…" Ayanami muttered weakly at the revelation.

"That's the point."

The atmosphere within the group got silent, the only sounds going on were the ones happening on the backgrounds. The police still got the block on lockdown, meaning that there were no pedestrians around, leaving the whole road to themselves with the few exceptions of several cars and other law enforcement vehicles laying around.

"But… but… that's just…" Zuikaku was struggling to find the right word to fit what she'd just heard.

"Not right? Cruel? Wong?" King offered her some selection of words. "Not when they're goin' against the law. Because in a country, not only here in Japan, people who go against the law get punished." King said. "Though I'm sure that not all of the guys there were all bad people, I'm sure that they have circumstances to be in the place where they're in. But what can we do? Criminals get punished, bastards get killed."

"Why people die…?" King asked in a bitter tone, one that was low and personal. "It's because people're stupid, that's why."

* * *

At exactly 1600 hours, a Red Arrow Osprey arrived to pick King and his team of ship girls up and back to Yokosuka. They arrived at base at the next hour, and admiral Yoshikawa greeted them upon arrival, possibly for debriefing. Standing outside on the helipad of the base, King and his team stood in attention in the admiral's presence.

"Good, you're back." The admiral took his time to analyze the returnees before him. "I take it that the mission went according to plan?"

"It did, we just had a little bit of discussion in the end, nothing really important to be put into report." King said, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm more surprised at how shitty the design and structure of the facility is rather than the number of thugs infested in that hell hole. Seriously, they could at least put some windows over there… sheesh…"

A snort of amusement came from the admiral. "They didn't really pay much attention on designs and structure, as long as that facility's big enough to store equipments and other valuable hardware, then that's enough." Admiral Yoshikawa shook his head openly. "Really, I swear that people are getting desperate with this whole Abyss-al incident happening…"

"Speaking of which, did you manage to figure out who supplied those thugs with weapons?"

At that, the admiral's expression darkened. "No, not yet. But I'm still hoping that you're wrong though, if it's really an inside job, then we'll have a bigger mess to clean and we haven't even have a solid organization yet."

King flexed his arms sideways before stretching them. "Well why don't we worry about that later and focus on maintaining our future headquarters now? In a few more days, I reckon that my boys will be done with the main constructions." He turned back to look at the girls. "You hear that girls, you'll be experiencing what it feels like to live on an ocean platform!"

"I'm not really excited to hear that…" Shikinami muttered.

"Don't be so down just yet, ya might just be surprised at what my boys got for us there. Sure, it's far from mainland but at least we'll be able to respond to threats faster in the open sea." King explained. "Besides, living on an ocean platform is nice. Sure, the birds may get tad too poopy for your taste but the winds and sunset's better there. Oh and chances are, we'll have an aquarium there!"

The sight of King acting gleefully unnerved several of them.

"Ah but we're still working on to build the facilities acceptable. Don't want anythin' to malfunction when they're started workin'." King says. "So you don't have to worry about moving anytime soon. For now, this base is more than enough for us to conduct assignments."

Admiral Yoshikawa nodded. "If that is all then you are all dismissed."

"Oh, and don't forget to place the guns and gears in the osprey before you leave." King told the girls who were just about to leave.

Admiral Yoshikawa approached King. "Tell me what really happened back there." He spoke in a low voice to avoid the girls from hearing him.

"The girls didn't take the idea of shooting people that well. So, I basically gave them the order to shoot anyone that's a threat." King replied in an equally low voice. "I did what I had to do; if we're doin' this to prepare the girls for future occasions, then they might as well get a taste of the fruit now than later."

"I see." The older man muttered. "Just how messy did things went?"

"If you count at least sixty-seventy armed yakuza with military grade weapons firing at ya' with all they got, then I'll go ahead and say very messy. Things went messy, but thankfully, nothing went wrong either." King answered with a small snort at the end.

"What's so funny?" admiral Yoshikawa asked.

"I'll tell you what's funny. The fact that these girls who're built with the task to defend their country with all their power having to kill their own countrymen." The younger man muttered softly. "Can't say I'm new to that idea, but let's just say that I'm not exactly fond of it either?"

"Oh really, how so?" The admiral was pushing on, part of him wanted to hear more.

"If you can say killing more than three hundred Russian when you're supposed to fight for Russia something different from what the girls did, then pigs can fly." He shook his head while crossing his arms at the same time, his eyes drifting away somewhere. "Things were hard back then, even as a kid. I told the girls that if I could act like a machine and follow orders, then so can they. After all, they're the machines, if we're speaking literally and factually, right?"

As the warm evening breeze swept past them, the admiral still didn't answer.

"I guess." The officer shrugged. "I'm not personally involved with the development of these girls, but I believe that Shinjo-sensei and his team wanted to make these girls act as human as possible."

"How 'human'?"

"…Probably even more human than we are."

King couldn't help but not doubt the admiral's conclusion.

* * *

King's Osprey landed safely at the helipad of the temporary headquarters of Red Arrow private militia in Osaka. The ramp lowered itself automatically and before it was even fully opened, King could already see the line of mercenaries present to greet him dressed in their non-combat uniform. They all formed two lines, facing each other while leaving a way for him to walk in the middle. And the moment he hopped off the Osprey to enter the base, they all saluted him.

"At ease." He said to his men for them to be at ease. From the distance, King could already see the grey wearing figure that was his friend Tae waiting to greet him near the front entrance of the base. He walked towards the man, knowing that he had something to say to him. As usual, his partially blind partner was accompanied with his personal guards dressed in black and berets.

"King, you went into an op with the Japs." That wasn't even a question.

"Yeah, that's why I asked for those guns I have in the osprey." King nudged his head. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just confirming." Tae coughed. "On to pressing matters… our boys managed to get a read on Ru's current condition while you're away. It's true that she'd placed herself into a deep sleep like state where it's impossible for us to get her back up and conscious for interrogation. But, we could still monitor her brain—processor activities to get a better understanding of the abyss-al and maybe, figure a way to wake her up."

"Well that's almost a good news." King sighed. "Anything else to report?"

"Our expenses are increasing King, meaning that we'll have to reduce the number of men we send out to the fields. I recommend you to start and group our guys into squads based on their specialties. I've done some for you while you were away, but you're free to change them from your computer. I also sent you the rosters to your email, check it."

"Yeah, I'll do that later."

King walked inside the building and into his office. Once inside, he closed the door and plopped down the chair with his legs on the table. He stretched his body, feeling the effect of the day starting to kick into him. He'll do things later, after a short nap.


End file.
